Robyn Sark's Dishonored: The Shadow of Dunwall
by RogueMetamorph
Summary: HIATUS: Once known as the Shadow of Dunwall, Robyn Sark steals from the rich to give to the survivors of the Rat Plague. But one day, she is caught stealing in Dunwall Tower but ends up saving the lives of the Empress and her daughter. She is offered a choice; get sent to Coldridge or be taken on as the apprentice under the Lord Protector... Follows the game. Eventual OC/Corvo.
1. Caught In A Trap

**The Shadow of Dunwall**

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**Disclaimer:**** I don't own **_**Dishonored**_** (the video game or etc.). I also don't own any other book, movie, song or character I may have mentioned along the way. I just so happened to use it for non-profitable fun in my spare time. **

**Author's Note:**** For the most part, the dialogue that you've heard in the game has been untouched by my keyboard tickling hands (except obviously when my character gets involved) because I really want to respect that game and how well it was made. However, that's not to say that there won't be a few little changes where I feel they are needed and I hope the game's script writers won't mind. **

**Furthermore, I hope those of you that have come to find my OC/Corvo Dishonored fan fiction really enjoy both the OC that I've created for the world of Dishonored and the way that I've written her into this incredible story. Thank you for reading and I hope that you review. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 1 – Caught In A Trap**

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Robyn crouched low, keeping her hood pulled down low while her scarf remained anchored by her nose to cover the lower half of her face. True, it was better to not be seen at all but it could hardly be avoided sometimes and she much preferred that they see a figure than her having to kill them to keep her face a secret. She'd been sneaking around in the shadows and skittering across rooftops since she could walk but every person had limits to their skills, hers was with the gangs or places with intense guard activity. However, these were the places that usually had the good loot which made the long hours of sneaking well worth it.

When her parents had died when she was eleven, she'd been starving and depressed for weeks until kind survivors had taken her in. It had been by the kindness of those people that she'd understood why she was still alive while everyone else had perished around her; she was meant to help others. Since then she'd dawned her armor and hidden in the shadows, stealing from those who could afford it and use the currency to buy food and elixir to give to the survivors of the plague that still were trying to get by. Usually she snuck her way into the Estate District or the Legal District to steal from the nobles which tended to be safer for her despite the large amount of guards but sometimes she'd go to the gangs whenever she felt especially annoyed with them. She never killed unless she absolutely had to, which wasn't often, but it didn't mean that she wasn't so confident not wear her cowl or carry her weapons. She was still human. Mistake happened.

However, she was currently sneaking into a place that didn't take kindly to dead guards or even knocked out guards. Incapacitated guards in Dunwall Tower meant that there would be alarms and an inflow of activity that she didn't need. She'd learned that the first time she'd managed to weasel her way into the Tower, loosing access for a few months before she could manage to find a new way back in. It was better to never be seen at all, sneak through the rafters and in the shadows of the rooms as she slipped different items into her pockets.

However, she could only do so much when she had a Tail trailing behind her. She never worked with other people, much preferring to keep her identity a secret, but this time was different.

"_Why look who it is…"_

_Robyn jerked back, her eyes meeting the strangers as she drew her sword on him. He gave her a bored smiled and drew a gun from his coat, aiming for her head. _

"… _the Shadow of Dunwall. Never thought that you'd be a female,"_

_Robyn glared, silently berating herself for being so lazy to have let this stranger get the best of her in her own hideout. She'd been foolish to think that no one ever traveled by rooftop except the Whalers, local assassins headed by a dangerous man named Daud. Though, to be fair, very few people nowadays had the capability to get up to the roofs and jump between the buildings anyway. So Robyn traveled this way and had made her makeshift home only accessible from the rickety balcony on the top floor of her building. She's never had to worry about trespassers before and had simply slipped off her off her hood and unwrapped the scarf from her face that kept her from being recognized. _

"_How did you find me?" Robyn bit out, thoroughly annoyed at this ass. _

"_Followed you, of course. Wasn't easy," _

"_And what do you want?"_

_This made him smile, pulling at scars on his face that she hadn't noticed before. "I hear that the Shadow of Dunwall can get into Dunwall Tower unseen… but refuses to take anyone with him,"_

_Robyn shifted uncomfortably. "That's true,"_

"_Well that's about to change… unless you want to be handed over to the Watch,"_

Robyn glared at the man behind her as he tumbled out of the metalwork to crouch behind her, making her wince at the noise. He wasn't the best at sneaking though she'd been doing it for years and couldn't exactly complain at his inabilities. The only real issue she took with him was that he was here at all but she had no choice unless she wanted to be given up to the guards and end her days of thieving to help the survivors of Dunwall.

She took a deep breath in before slipping behind one of the guards and two workers, falling into the shadows behind some crates. She kept her position until her Tail followed behind her, his breath hot on her shoulder as the guard turned with a frown, looking around. Robyn watched the guard with careful eyes, noting his body language before he finally turned back around and continued on his way. She let out a breath and motioned with a finger for her Tail to follow.

It took them a good long while to get across the different levels of the courtyards and into Dunwall Tower which held all of the good loot. Robyn slipped through the rooms with her Tail behind her, occasionally motioning for him to pick things up for her. He seemed bored, much to her annoyance, as they traveled through the rooms, scooping up what they could. Why had he wanted to come with her if not to steal as he'd said?

Robyn and her Tail were in the middle of looting a new room when an inflow of guards had her grabbing the collar of his coat and yanking him down. She forced him under a table, following close behind as the room grew silent and new footsteps entered the room. She felt him shift next to her, his hand in his coat as he eyed the newcomers. She glared at him, tapping his cheek to get him to focus on what they were currently trying to do; stay hidden.

"What is it, Corvo?"

Robyn froze instantly, her back stiffening at the sound of that name. She'd heard of the mighty Lord Protector many times and knew that it was never a good idea to be on the other side of the law when he was around. He was a man from Serkonos which might be known for its artistry but he was a harsh man that could take on a number of men in a fight and win with no trouble.

_Shit._

"Corvo?"

A hand suddenly gripped Robyn's ankle, ripping her out from under the table and out into the light of the room. She let out a gasp of surprise through her scarf as her hands tried to grip anything they could, even the sleeve of her Tail's coat. However, it did no good and as soon as she was out in the open she regained her composure and kicked the inside of her capture's elbow, forcing them to let her go. She came up in a crouch, pulling out her sword and crossbow at the same time everyone in the room pulled out their swords and guns. Her capture, the Lord Protector himself, pulled out his sword and gun as he pushed the Empress and Lady Emily behind him, his eyes hard as he looked down at Robyn.

Robyn's eyes flashed around the room from under her hood, taking in the large number of cocked pistols aimed at her. She cursed herself internally and frowned beneath her scarf as she let out a heavy sigh. This was the end for her it would seem. There was no way that her long years of sneaking and thievery would get her out of this situation. Even if it was only the Lord Protector, she knew that she wouldn't be able to fight her way out of there. And she didn't want to chance harming the Empress or the young Lady Emily. She was already going to be headed to Coldridge for damn's sake.

"I'm not here to harm anyone," Robyn spoke quickly, her scarf only barely muffling her words whilst her hood still hung low over her face. "I'm a thief-" Assassins for the most part were killed on sight. "-I'll put down my weapons when you the guards do. The Lord Protector may keep his stance,"

"And we're supposed to listen to the prisoner?" one of the guards snorted haughtily.

But Robyn kept her eyes on the Lord Protector, speaking to him. "I'm not here to harm anyone. I just don't want to get killed by a trigger happy guard,"

The Lord Protector frowned down at her before he nodded.

The guards grumbled as they lowered their weapons, only a few of them actually sheathing their swords and replacing their guns into their holsters. However, it was enough for Robyn as she sheathed her own sword and raised her hands above her head as she stood. She kept her eyes on the Lord Protector throughout this, hoping that if he and her maintained their understanding then there was more possibility that she got out alive.

Robyn tilted her head down towards the table. "Are you coming out now or are you going to wait for them to find you?"

The Lord Protector's mouth twitched into a frown as his eyes flickered towards the movement Robyn could hear coming from underneath the table. Her Tail was muttering angrily to himself before came out from under the table with less grace than a drunken sailor. He came up to stand next to her with a frown on his face, his hands tucked into his coat pockets as he glared at everyone in the room.

"Hands up!" one of the guards shouted, lifting his gun from his side.

When her Tail didn't move, Robyn glanced over at him with a frown. If he planned on doing some daredevil move to try to escape, it would get the both of them killed along with a whole lot of the guards who would get caught up in their own crossfire. Robyn wasn't a fan of death.

"Don't be stupid," she snapped at him, watching him twitch. "What the hell are you doing?"

"It's time for a new order!" he suddenly explained, pulling his hands out of his coat. "Death to the Empress!"

An explosion blinded Robyn for a moment before she realized that the explosion had been a mixture of a flash bomb and a smoke grenade set off at her feet. She blinked as the smoke burned her eyes, thankful to the scarf still around her face as she heard coughing surround her. Robyn instantly lunged forward, unsheathing her sword as she heard her traitorous Tail grunting and shouting as he fought someone. It would have been easy for her to leave the room and escape the way she'd come, leaving the Empress and her little girl behind to whatever fate befell them, but that wasn't Robyn. She was a person that tried hard to protect those she could when they couldn't protect themselves.

So she dodged wild swings from swords through the milky smoke, listening to the desperate screams of the guards, the cries of Lady Emily or the growls of the murderous man. Robyn was spurred on when she caught the distinctive smell of sulfur and sewer water in the air. It was a smell that Robyn had long learned to associate with Granny Rags and her house down near the Bottle Street Gang's hideout. She wasn't stupid enough to not recognize the shiver that ran down her spine as she listened to the confusion around, the touch of the Outsider.

Robyn came in contact with the Empress and the Lady Emily as the smoke began to thin, she took hold of Lady Emily's shoulder, instantly getting the attention of the Empress.

"Don't you touch her!"

"I don't mean to harm her," Robyn instantly snapped at her. "You need to leave before something happens to you,"

The Empress gave her a confused look as Robyn led them towards the doors. "And why are you helping us?"

"Because this is not what I came here for," Robyn told her as she forced them through the doors and down the hall, away from the fighting. "I came here to steal from you and give it back to the people of Dunwall. I don't want deaths on my hands,"

"_Oh, Shaaa-dow!_" a familiar voice sang.

Robyn spun on the spot, stopping the sword inches from her face. She put her weight on the hilt of her sword and watched the traitor teeter back before he swung at her again. She blocked him at each attempt, keeping him off balance each time his left hand glowed with an eerie darkness that Robyn recognized from her dreams. She kept herself between the man and the two females at her back, forcing him back down the hall before he turned and disappeared.

Robyn didn't question it, just turned and ran back to the two to keep them moving.

"You're the Shadow of Dunwall!" Lady Emily suddenly gasped tugging on Robyn's sleeve. "I've heard of you from the guards. You rob from the rich and give to the poor like thieves from the old legends… but they were all boys,"

Robyn snorted. "Sorry to disappoint,"

She led the Empress and her daughter into the arms of some approaching guards before she heard a clatter coming from behind her. She turned to find the Lord Protector running towards them, coming to grip the Empress by the arms.

"Are you harmed?"

The Empress shook her head. "No, Corvo. We're both alright. This woman got us out and protected us,"

The Lord Protector nodded before looking to the guards. "The man has disappeared but I don't trust that he's gone. I want every inch of Dunwall Tower searched,"

"You'll want to check the boat entrance," Robyn suggested. "That's how we got in. If he were smart he would have fled after his failed attempt… though I doubt he will,"

The Lord Protector frowned over at her, a look that might have been confusion, before nodding to the men who spread out.

"_Death to the Empress!_"

Robyn turned as dread trickled down her spine like ice water. She watched as the man, touched by the Outsider, appeared from the shadows with a gun in one hand and the other glowing darkly. The scent of sulfur and sewer water practically permeated the hall, as if the hall itself was an illusion and they all stood in the sewers of Dunwall. The darkness surrounding the man almost seemed to dampen the light coming from the candles that lined the hall, a chill working its way down the hall towards them.

Robyn could hear Lady Emily coughing behind her whilst the Lord Protector stepped forward, gun and sword raised. The man grinned at them before he suddenly disappeared in a flash of black that left behind the smell of sulfur and a chill.

"_Mother!_"

Robyn heard the Empress scream, spinning to find the man directly on the Empress with the gun aimed at her forehead. Robyn instantly stomped down on the back of his knee, bringing him down to his knees before the gun could go off. She slammed the hilt of her sword down on the side of his neck as she tied to rip the gun from his hand, fighting him for control of the weapon.

She gasped with wide eyes, as the man fell unconscious, leaving her to stand over him with the smoking gun in her hand. The muzzle was angled up her body so that she could feel the sting of gunpowder burning her skin and clothes, leaving her breathless. She'd been shot at many times and a few had hit home, leaving her with several scars across her body, but this hurt more than all of those times combined.

"We need help!" she could hear the Empress yelling as Lady Emily stared up at her with wide innocent eyes. "The Royal Physician! Bring him here at once!"

Robyn frowned, dropping the gun to place her hand against her wound.

"Corvo, please! She needs help,"

She hadn't realized that she was on the ground until she felt intense pressure on her wound that pressed her down into the cold granite floor. She groaned as the large hands pressing against hers, blood oozing through her fingers.

"M-mother?"

"Shh, my darling. We are alright now,"

"W-why did that man do that?"

"I don't know,"

"Will she be alright? The Sh-shadow?"

"I hope so, darling,"

"_Can you hear me?_"

Robyn frowned, tilting her head to look up at the Lord Protector. "Yes,"

"Good," he nodded, his expression not changing. "Tell me when you can't,"

"Alright,"

Things were growing dark and fuzzy as events began to happen around her. She didn't really register anything that was happening though she still could see and hear it. It was only when things started to get too dark that she realized that her eyes had closed. She tried to open her eye, groaning as she felt pressure around her middle and around her shoulders that was making it hard to breathe. She shifted and opened her eyes to find she was looking up at a ceiling, it wasn't one that she recognized nor was it one that she expected to see. She frowned, looking around until she realized that she was in a small room, laid out on a cot.

"Welcome back,"

Robyn frowned, her eyes moving to the Lord Protector himself leaning against the stone wall, his masculine arms crossed over his equally masculine chest. It was hard not to notice such a thing when it made up so much of his person, adding to the intimidatingly harsh bravado that he exuded even as he simply stood. She supposed that it was his job and not his lineage that had frozen his features into an unemotional mask and left his eyes cold and hard, given that he'd original been from Serkonos, a place of merchants, food and art. His black hair was cut short around his head though it was longer than those of the guard that surrounded him, remaining out of his dark colored eyes that might have been brown if not for the dim lighting of the room that made them appear black. His features were too regular to be considered truly handsome though his strong jaw line and straight nose did much for his appearance. Even his jaw had a masculine line to it that made him look harsh as he stared at the ground.

Robyn shifted uncomfortably as the silence in the room grew heavy and long, leaving only the sound of her breathing to fill the space. He seemed to sense it as he dropped his eyes to his boots, cleaner than most things Robyn had seen in her lifetime.

"Lady Emily tells me you are what the people of Dunwall call 'The Shadow,'"

"At your service," Robyn breathed, raising her eyes to the ceiling. "They give me too much credit. I'm just a woman robbing from the rich to get the plague survivors some supplies… A shadow is much stealthier than I could ever hope to be,"

He made a sound that was neither here nor there.

"I am a thief who got caught," she reminded him, glancing over.

"Maybe they _are_ giving you too much credit,"

Anyone else could have taken offense but Robyn could hear the lilt in his voice that led her to think that he was using sarcasm. Anyone else would have missed the twitch at the corner of his mouth that made her think he was amused.

"You could have slipped away when your Tail dropped the smoke bomb, instead you stayed and protected the Empress and her daughter," the Lord Protector stated without looking up at her. "You could have kept your secret entrance into Dunwall Tower a secret to exploit another day, instead you told us so that we could block it off,"

"You wonder at my intentions," Robyn breathed, not bothering to sit up. "Why would the Shadow of Dunwall, a thief and sneak, be a good Samaritan?"

"I might have thought you saved the Empress for the reward," the Lord commented, lifting up her coat which had been lying over the back of a chair. He reached inside one of the inside pockets to reveal a handful of coins and an expensive looking necklace. "A reward that would mean your freedom once you had healed,"

Robyn snorted. "I'm not stupid, Lord Protector. Surely the rich and powerful advisors won't let me go even though I've saved the Empress' life. That's a black eye to their egos that they couldn't stand to have been given by a street rat like I. I'm not getting out of here either way,"

"But you saved her anyway…?"

Robyn shut her eyes, feeling the ache in her stomach. "Maybe I did it for the possible reward if I lived, maybe because I have an innate need to protect others, maybe I had a sudden spurt of patriotism for my city and loyalty to my Empress, maybe I'm just suicidal… You decide, Lord Protector,"

There was a long silence between them and Robyn was beginning to drop off to sleep when she heard him push off the wall. Her eyes popped open as he walked to the door, ready to leave her alone in her room… and not a cell.

"And so what has the Empress and her advisors decided to do with me?" Robyn questioned, raising her voice to stop him from leaving. "Like I said, I'm not likely to be released but yet it would look poorly if you were to lock up the Empress' savior. Maybe I'll just disappear from existence like so many others in this city?"

He remained at the door, his hand on the doorknob as if he were frozen in time between walking to the door and opening it. But she could see the tense muscles of his shoulders through his coat, the way his head was lowered as he thought about something.

"The Empress has displayed her distaste of sending her savior to Coldridge," he told her after a moment, his voice almost inaudible with his back turned to her. "And Lady Emily has taken a shining to the thought of having a legend walking around the Tower," He turned to look at her with a frown, his face an emotionless mask for her to read nothing from even if she knew him well enough to try. "But perhaps sending you to Coldridge would be best for everyone,"

Robyn glared at him, feigning anger and indifference even when her heart was pounding.

"After all, you are a thief, as you say. Not to mention you brought a Tail into the Tower that meant to kill our Empress… perhaps this was what was meant to happen? That you would be welcomed into the Tower with open arms after saving the Empress? You would make a perfect double agent for whatever group your Tail came from,"

Robyn didn't even blink. "That I would,"

The Lord Protector watched her for a moment before he sighed, dropping his expression to drag a hand down his face. "But it'd be a waste," he said more to himself than to her. "I've decided to make you Apprentice Protector… Perhaps even make you the Lady Protector one day,"

"You can't be serious," Robyn frowned up at him, shocked by his words. "I'm a _street rat_, Lord Protector, not one of the soldiers from the upper districts. I can say with certainty that you could find others with more skill- hell, with more loyalty- than I,"

"You have natural skill and special abilities that the soldiers from the upper districts will never possess," he told her with more honesty than she expected. "You also have bravery, loyalty and selflessness that I see in few others that would ever possible lead me to trust them with the Empress' life. Just because your loyalty isn't necessarily to the Empress does not mean that you do not hold morals and justice in high esteem," He stopped, forcing her to meet his eyes before he continued. "So which is… A life of servitude to the Empress as a protector or death in Coldridge?"

Robyn frown up at him.

"… When do I start?"

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**Author's Note: Review?**


	2. The Lady Protector

**The Shadow of Dunwall**

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**Chapter 2 – The Lady Protector**

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Four years had passed since the Shadow of Dunwall had finally succumb to the plague. It had also been four years since a street rat from Gristol had been plucked off the streets to become the Apprentice Protector. Robyn wasn't sure how exactly the story was supposed to go but it all worked out to "_give the poor people of Dunwall hope in seeing one of their own in Dunwall Tower_." She didn't much like having one useful mask destroyed to only don another that wasn't really helping anyone… but she had to admit that it was nice to have a life that she could relax and not scavenge every day, to have a life where she could breathe.

Except for the first month with the deflated lung and messed up shoulder.

It had taken a while to heal from the near fatal bullet wound that had gone through her right lung. She'd never much liked staying in one place for too long and didn't trust anyone but herself to heal her wounds. This meant that she was very venomous toward the egotistical Royal Physician when he tried to convince her to allow him to use some experimental medicines on her. She'd refused to let him get near her and then followed that up by telling him off in a way only a lady could. The Royal Spymaster had berated her for that and had nearly thrown her into Coldridge. It hadn't scared her any more than when it had first been brought up as a punishment. So she'd nodded obediently at the crooked nosed man and left without a word. It wasn't until she was back in the presence of the Lord Protector again that she'd been put in her place. He'd told to hold her tongue, at least for the time being, until she'd earned her voice back.

Then there was the long months of training that followed, first to get her back into working order after being shot, and then into a physical agility and deadly skill that the Lord Protector felt comfortable with. It wasn't difficult to get her stamina and agility up to where he wanted it given her life on the streets of Dunwall after the plague, and she wasn't bad as far as swordplay went but she knew he had much to teach her when he was beating her at every turn (not that it helped that he was a whirlwind when faced with three guards). The only issue she took was when he began telling her how to kill and the best ways to kill an attacker. She let him teach her but she knew that she wouldn't take a life unless it was absolutely necessary. She'd gone her whole life incapacitating enemies and knocking out her opponents, she wasn't about to stop anytime soon, even in protection of the Empress and her daughter.

It was rough at first, and not just because of the extensive training or change in lifestyle. All of her time was dedicated to someone else, all of her thoughts had to be centered on what the person was doing and on what was around her. Robyn had spent almost her entire life inside of her own head, spending hours thinking about her next moves and plans… and now she couldn't be the least bit distracted or else she might get the Empress and her daughter killed. It also meant that she woke up with the Empress and the Lord Protector and went to bed long after they did instead of at her own will.

One of the first times Robyn finally got to see her beloved city again was a few months after she'd been back on her feet again. The Empress had decided to go about the different districts to visit the various citizens that had supported her over the years. It was a good idea in retrospect but it was beyond dangerous to the point that even Corvo barely agreed to allow her to do so.

"_You have no choice in the matter," the Empress was saying as she walked to the automobile that would take them to the different districts. "We'll be visiting the people of Dunwall, show them that their Empress cares,"_

"_I don't that's safe, Your Majesty," the Spymaster exclaimed as he followed her, forced to stop when she got in. "What if you catch the plague-?"_

"_Then I'll be no different than those people that I've sworn to protect," she snapped, looking up at him from her seat as Corvo got in to the back-facing seats. Robyn tried to ignore the argument as she passed the guards that stood at the back of the automobile, nodding a greeting to the few she recognized. Some smiled and some ignored her as she got in beside Corvo. "I'm going. The Royal Protector assures me than he and his apprentice can protect me from any ill tidings that my citizens might have," _

_With that, the automobile took off, leaving the guards to follow after. _

_The day was spent with the Empress as she made several stops to visit nobles, working people, and random citizens. Even a few recognized Robyn when she came into view though Robyn mostly didn't recognize them… though her alter ego recognized the insignia on their coin pouches. It was strange to find that with each house she passed, her fingers began to itch more and more until she thought for sure that her hands would cramp up. However, as the day grew old it only left her feeling incredibly bored and tired even when the Empress didn't seem to lose any of her spunk. Even the resilient Royal Protector seemed to be frowning a bit more than he usually did with his resting-face that scared away most guards and citizens. _

_The sun was shining golden rays across the rooftops that Robyn used to climb as the Shadow as she led the Empress back to the automobile. The Distillery District was their last stop for the day and Robyn was thankful, not sure she could stand following the Empress around for five more minutes. It had been a wonderful experience to see her beloved city again but… she much preferred the roof tops and the survivors than those that the Empress seemed to meet. She was just happy to be returning back to Dunwall Tow-_

"Traitor!_"_

_Robyn turned towards the yelling just in time to see what hit her square in the face; a dead hagfish. It knocked her back a step and she was too shocked to duck when a can came flying at her. That one hit her in the mouth to cut her lip, nails and rocks coming out of the top to spray over her person. She yelped and ducked as more things came flying at her, aimed at her instead of the Empress who had ducked into the automobile._

"Get the Empress out!_" _

_The automobile took off down the street towards the boat that would return both the Empress and the automobile that would return them to Dunwall Tower. This left Robyn with little cover but she needn't have worried, guards surging out into the street to grab the group before more could be thrown at Robyn. Shouts from both the guards and the citizens filled the street mostly of angry words and curses, some of which were thrown her way. _

"_Traitor! You left us for an easy life!"_

"_Bitch!" _

"_What'd you have to do to become one of them? Who'd you have to open your legs for?"_

"_You sold out!"_

"_Traitor!"_

"Are you alright?_"_

_Robyn looked up at Corvo, surprised to find him there with her. "You should be with the Empress,"_

_He took her chin in between his thumb and forefinger with a frown, looking her over. She frowned back, pulling away from him to wipe her face on her uniform sleeve, coming away with fish scales and a bit of blood from her stinging lip._

"_She'll be fine. No one can get into the automobile short of a controlled explosion," Corvo explained to her. "We'll meet her at the docks,"_

_She frowned, looking over at the citizens being hauled away. "Look… I'm sorry. I just- I just wasn't expecting that. I should have been ready for it,"_

"_That's true," he nodded, leading her down the street towards the docks. "You should have seen the hagfish coming, should have been able to stop the tin can… But then, so should I as well,"_

_Robyn looked up at him in shock. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?_

"_I might be your superior but we are partners in keeping the Empress safe. We should be able to trust each other, Robyn," he told her, his eyes on the road rather than meeting hers. "Your focus was on the Empress and that is all I can ask. Next time _we'll_ do better,"_

_Robyn slowly nodded, keeping pace with him as the got to the docks where the Empress waited._

Robyn's and the Lord Protector's relationship hadn't started out the best, starting out as a strained apprenticeship. It was mostly made up of Robyn desperately trying to keep up with the torture he put her under to get her up to his level of skill while he didn't trust her as far as he could throw her. They were always very wary of each other, one being the feared Lord Protector and the other the thieving Shadow of Dunwall. If it wasn't Corvo sending her after five guards with nothing but her dagger, it was him not leaving her alone long enough to go to the bathroom in peace.

However, after the incident in the Distillery District and the two working together, they became respected colleagues amongst each other and even friends. It might have been no shock given that they really had no choice given that they spent so much time with one another as they watched over the Empress and the Lady Emily, but Robyn genuinely began to enjoy Corvo's company and found his silent humor endearing. He seemed to like her as well, allowing his true self to show from behind the intimidating mask he put on for everyone else, a similar mask that Robyn put up while watching over the Empress.

The two spent so much time together that they began to know each other as no other two might unless they were married, being able to sense their moods and thoughts without words. One of them might be across the room while listening to the talks of the aristocrats when the other would suddenly look up, the other only allowing a twitch at the corner of their mouth to show that would send the other into a silent fit of chuckles. Robyn could almost recognize his voice through doors, being able to pick out the flat tones of the mainland with just a hint of a Serkonos lilt that he still carried with him when he was amused or angry. He didn't usually talk a lot and when he did his speech was deliberate as if he thought through everything twice before saying anything out loud.

Their relationship, as could be expected, caused a stir in the gossip of Dunwall Tower, one that neither enjoyed and the Empress seemed to detest, causing the Empress to separate the two as often as she could between watching over herself and her daughter Emily. Robyn didn't mind though she often found herself missing the Lord Protector but she enjoyed her time spent with the Lady Emily. Robyn enjoyed watching the curious little girl grow into one hungry for knowledge. Emily was a young child when Robyn first appeared in Dunwall Tower and the girl had always found an interest in Robyn, who had once been the Shadow of Dunwall. Emily was always eager to learn the odd and outrageous while wanting to hear stories of what Robyn had done before being employed at Dunwall Tower. Robyn, of course, was eager to tell her when no one was around.

Robyn much preferred the arrangement as Lady Emily's bodyguard and friend given the relationship that the Empress and she had developed over the years. At first the two had been very kind to one another, the Empress respecting Robyn for having saved her and her daughter. The Empress even took the time out of her schedule when she learned that Robyn couldn't read, teaching her and Emily at the same time to read children's books and to write. It was a bit awkward, however, when the conversation of the Shadow of Dunwall came up, the two having a debate on whether the persona was actually helpful to the city. But as Robyn had grown into her role as Lady Protector and learned the secrets of Dunwall Tower, things had become strained.

Being a Protector, Apprentice to the Royal Protector or later the Lady Protector, it meant that one spends a great deal of time with the Empress and a great deal of time listening and watching. This never bothered her the way Corvo had thought that it would bother her mostly because she'd spent years crouched in a single position for hours on end waiting for the right moment to creep from the shadows. However, this meant that Robyn heard a lot of the Tower gossip concerning the possible romantic relationship between the Empress and the Lord Protector.

It only became more and more obvious to Robyn that these whispers were true the more she stood by the Empress's side. She often watched the two act like respected colleagues amongst each other but would often witness breaks in their behavior. She'd sometimes see a genuine smile appear upon Corvo's face when he looked upon his Empress or watch the Empress caress the cheek of her Lord Protector.

But Robyn, as aware as she was about all of this, tried not to comment given that it was neither her life nor her business. However, that changed one day when she was standing guard over Lady Emily.

"_Robyn! Come look at my drawing!"_

_Robyn smiled as she stepped from her post to crouch down beside Emily on the floor, her eyes on the parchment that the girl held up. _

_It was a large piece of paper, full of colors and scratchy shapes that represented people that Robyn found recognizable. The first figure was obviously Emily, dressed in white with raven black hair that matched her mother's own locks. She was smiling as she stood in the center of the picture, surrounded by other figures. One of them was obviously Robyn though she was surprised to find herself crouched up on top of a nearby wall in the picture. _

_Emily smiled and pointed. "It's you when you were The Shadow,"_

"_Explains why I'm smudgey,"_

_The girl suddenly frowned, looking up at Robyn. "You don't like it?"_

"_Are you kidding? I love it," _

_This sent the girl grinning with pride as she looked back down at her art. _

_Robyn looked over the picture again, finding Lord Campbell, Lord Burrows, Anton Sokolov, Captain Curnow, even a few of the maids. She also found Corvo close by Emily's side, depicted as a tall man in his uniform though he lacked the intimidating appearance he usually held. In this picture he seemed happy as he held the hand of the figure beside him. This figure was obviously the Empress, dressed in black as she normally was, her blue eyes shining from the page as one of the brightest colors._

"_That's Mother and Corvo," Emily suddenly commented, pointing at the pair. "I like seeing them happy together… Mother gets sad sometimes, but not when Corvo is around. I wanted to have a picture like this. I like it when they're happy,"_

_Robyn glanced down at Emily, curious. "Are they like this often?"_

_Emily nodded matter-of-factly. "Yes but no one is supposed to know,"_

"_Oh, then I promise not to tell,"_

"_Alright," Emily nodded, returning to her coloring. _

Robyn tried to keep her promise but the Empress came to her one day to question her about what she'd heard from Emily. Robyn had been honest and had followed that by saying that it was none of her business unless Corvo decided to let his feelings hinder his ability to do his job. At first the Empress had been highly insulted and defensive but all Robyn wanted was to be informed. The only way that Robyn could do her job was to be informed of possible threats to the Empress.

It was true that the Empress and Corvo had been in love, however, they both knew that they could not truly be together because of who they were to society. So they decided that the two would continue on as if they were Empress and Lord Protector, colleagues within the Tower and friends otherwise. But Robyn knew that despite this "agreement" that the two continued to be in love with each other, one letting her feelings show without realizing it and the other burying his emotions beneath a mask of indifference.

But it didn't matter and the conversation was never brought up again.

In all reality the stiffness in Robyn's and the Empress's relationship might have been Robyn's knowledge of the Empress's and Corvo love but it could have been a number of other things. It might have had something to do with the Empress being an Empress while Robyn took her job quite seriously, or it might have had something to do with the jealousy Robyn sometimes saw in the Empress's eyes when Robyn and Corvo stood together as Royal Protectors. It wasn't something that Robyn worried about given that she would never go after Corvo in such a way when the Empress and he were so obviously in love, but it strained their relationship more times than not.

And now, years later, Robyn was the Lady Protector to the Empress beneath the Royal Protector himself, unofficially the bodyguard to Lady Emily. She currently stood shoulder to shoulder with Corvo, her face hardened into a mask as she stood over the Empress's left shoulder as a meeting between the Empress and her advisors dredged on.

"I suggest that you send the Royal Protector to the other isles,"

Both Robyn's and Corvo's heads snapped up to look over at the Spymaster, Hiram Burrows, whose eyes were currently on the Empress, ignoring the pair of them. It was a shock to suggest such a thing. To send the Royal Protector as opposed to the Royal Spymaster or the High Overseer? It was like sending a maid to do a surgeon's job.

High Overseer Campbell nodded thoughtfully. "A surprisingly good idea. It would leave those of us of power in Dunwall while still getting the job done. Surely you couldn't send the Empress herself and you certainly couldn't send just the lowly Watch guard,"

This was all true and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that it wouldn't be the best choice. Despite not speaking often, everyone knew that Corvo was very well spoken and was very diplomatic when he needed to be. No one knew that better than Robyn and the Empress. It also meant that the Empress herself would not have to travel away from Dunwall, bringing up a number of problems with security while the Empress traveled across the waters, problems with lowering moral among the plague survivors who would see it as their Empress running from the problem, and problems with who would control government and make decisions while the Empress was gone. It made sense to send another.

"And why don't you send the Lady Protector?" one of the advisors asked in a harsh voice that spoke more of habit than of actual mood. "Surely she would be better to send than the Lord Protector himself away from the Empress,"

"She doesn't have the diplomatic background that the Lord Protector does," the Empress answered, clearly having made her decision.

"And what of your safety?" another challenged.

The Empress smiled. "I trust the abilities of the Lady Protector. She will protect Emily and I well,"

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Robyn breathed, bowing her head in thanks.

"So then it's settled," Spymaster Burrows spoke up, clapping his hands together as he turned his eyes to Corvo. "Better pack your bags, Corvo. You're in for a long trip,"

"Are you willing to travel to the other isles for this information?" the Empress asked, turning in her seat to look up at him. "It will be helpful to us for fighting the Rat Plague. Maybe if the others have any idea what we're up against…"

Corvo bowed his head low, placing a fist to his chest. "It would be my honor, Your Majesty,"

The Empress smiled warmly and nodded. "Thank you, Corvo,"

That night, after safely putting the Empress and Lady Emily to sleep in their chambers, Robyn followed Corvo to his room. He didn't bother closing his door behind him, both of them knew that if Robyn had something to say she'd just barge in after him anyway. So he left the door open, allowing her entry to come in as she pleased. And she did, closing the door behind her as he pulled out his trunk to pack for the long trip.

Robyn watched him as silence dragged on between them, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned against his wardrobe, ignoring the wisps of hair that hung down around her face and tickled her face. There had been many times that she'd thought about cutting her dark brown mane short like a number of the Dead Eel gang women had taken to doing. It made sense, more sense back when she was The Shadow, given that it meant that her hair would never get in her face or get her caught by someone using it as a leash to tug on. But Robyn had never dared. She didn't think of herself as very pretty, though she did look less worn than many women nowadays, but she had always admired her hair. So she kept it long and braided back from her face instead. It was one of the few luxuries anyone could have anymore.

Luxuries were few and far between nowadays, thanks to the Rat Plague, especially for those of the lower class. No one could afford the delicious fruits of Serkonos anymore, and even if one could, they rarely tasted as good after traveling through the dirty streets and through the hands of plague victims. Money was spent on elixirs and remedies now. The only other luxury one might have is the comfort of another human being…

Robyn's eyes traveled over Corvo's muscled back and frowned. He was very handsome, but he was also very taken by a certain Empress that she would never betray.

Robyn's hair was her only luxury.

"I don't like this," she told him, watching him tuck his gun, crossbow, darts, and a singular book that he packed in between the layers of clothes. "Just as much as this is a good idea, it's a horrible one. With you gone means that stupid people will think now would be the perfect time to strike at the Empress. I don't like it and neither do you,"

Corvo frowned, stopping to place his hands on either side of his trunk.

"This just seems a bit too perfect," Robyn continued.

"In the past, Emperors and Empresses have gotten by with a singular Royal Protector. She'll be safe with you, Robyn," he told her in an emotionless voice that made her unsettled. "Or are you saying you can't handle the job?"

Robyn snorted at him. "I can handle it," she told him, straightening away from her spot to step towards him, watching his face. "But you can't tell me you don't feel that trickle of ice running up your spine, Corvo. It's the same trickle I used to get thieving in Dunwall, it's the same one I got right before you pulled me out from under that table years back… You know something is off,"

He sighed, turning his face away from her. "It won't matter if we do our jobs,"

Robyn rolled her eyes. "Fine,"

She walked to his door, opening it to leave but stopping. She turned around to face him, nervous energy curling in her stomach as she watched him straighten and look at her. He was a very handsome man when he allowed himself to be, even with his regular features and normally emotionless expression. She couldn't help but admire him.

"Be safe and swift," she told him. "And hurry back on high waters,"

"Keep to the shadows," he said back, a fist to his chest. "Eyes open,"

Robyn nodded, shutting the door behind her.

Robyn didn't get to see Corvo until he was getting on the boat that would take him and Captain Curnow to his ship. They didn't say anything to each other, she just watched as the Empress and Lady Emily wished him a safe trip before seeing him off. None of them left until Corvo had long since been out of sight, the Empress taking Lady Emily back into Dunwall Tower where the spent the day together, Robyn positioned in the corner and silent.

The months that followed went by dully and a lot more peaceful than Robyn would have thought it would have been. There was only two security breaks, one of which having to do with a swarm of rats managing to find their way into the Tower and the other easily being taken care of when a man tried to get a personal meeting with the Empress. But even the sheer calm of the month made Robyn uneasy and she made sure to be extra careful in everything the Empress did and everywhere she went. She would even revert to her old ways and pretend to be absent from the Empress's side to hide and watch from a distance. But nothing ever happened.

Robyn was crouched up on one of the thin rafters that crossed near the ceiling of the Empress's room, giving her the perfect vantage point to watch over her. It had been a very long time since Robyn had given herself a break from watching over the Empress and she wasn't planning on doing so for another month, when Corvo returned. Which meant that she would remain crouched within the shadows of the rafters, the coattails of her uniform hanging down behind her.

The Empress was writing at her desk, her face darkened by what seemed like a near permanent frown. The sad frown had been sitting on her mouth since the day Corvo left and rarely was replaced by any other expression. Robyn often felt the same longing in her heart when she thought of Corvo but tried her best to ignore it because she had a job.

The Empress sighed, putting down her pen to rub a hand over her face. She frowned as she looked down at her letter, looking over it before she opened her mouth the read it aloud.

"_Corvo,_

_If only there was someone else that I trusted to send, so that you could remain near. But there is no one else, and the Spymaster was right to insist that I send you. The plague has taken so many and we much find a cure. _

_When you are near, my heart is at peace. Emily and I will count the days until you return. _

_Hurry home and bring good news_,"

The Empress sighed again, picking up the pen to sign her name before folding the letter and placing a seal on it. As the Empress stood, she looked up into the rafters, her eyes on Robyn in an instant with a sad mile on her face.

"I miss him too," Robyn whispered.

* * *

**Author's Note:**** I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who thought I would be showing more of Robyn's time as Apprentice Protector or the Lady Protector… but I want to get to the game already.**

**Review?**


	3. Dishonored

**The Shadow of Dunwall**

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Dishonored **

* * *

Robyn frowned from her position against one of the columns of the gazebo. This was probably one of the most beautiful places in Dunwall Tower, if not one of the most beautiful places in all of Dunwall. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens and over looked the harbor and the city itself, which some might not think to be beautiful, but Robyn did. Dunwall had been home to her for nearly her entire life and even as it was crumbling into ruin she found a beauty in it that few others could see anymore.

But the Empress could. Robyn knew that this was one thing that she and the Empress had in common; being able to see the beauty in Dunwall. It was also obvious that they both had a love the city and its people, evident as the Empress spoke with the Spymaster.

"They're sick people, not criminals," the Empress frowned, her eyes on the city rather on the man at her side.

"We've gone beyond that question, Your Majesty," the Spymaster frowned. "They're-"

"They're my citizens," the Empress interrupted as Lady Emily ran up. "And we will save them from the plague if we can. _All _of them,"

The slimey Spymaster frowned but nodded. "Very well,"

"We will not speak of this again,"

"Mother, Corvo is back!" Emily exclaimed happily.

Robyn's head jerked up, her eyes bright as they turned towards the stairs that led up to the gazebo. And sure enough, there he was. The Lord Protector hadn't changed much since she'd last seen him. His dark hair was still cut short upon his head, maybe a little shorter and messier given the rough times at sea over the past months. His face was clean as it normally was, pristine except for the occasional scars one could see in certain angles of light, much like Robyn's own scars.

"Thank you, Emily," the Empress smiled, glancing over at the Spymaster. "Leave us, please,"

"As you wish, Your Majesty," He bowed and moved to leave, stopping beside Corvo to speak with him quietly before moving off, taking Captain Curnow with him. "Follow me, Captain. We should leave them alone,"

Robyn frowned at that but turned back as Corvo approached. He let his eyes move to her, the two of them nodding their heads to each other in silent greetings before the Empress approached. The Empress smiled at him kindly, her eyes softening in a way that Robyn hadn't seen since Corvo had left on his voyage to the other isles. It warmed Robyn's heart a bit to see the Empress so content, even if it was only for a moment.

"It is a fair wind that brings you home to me," the Empress smiled, her eyes warm. "What news have you brought?"

Corvo stepped forward, reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket to reveal a letter. Having handed it to her he stepped back, coming level with Robyn. The two glanced at each other and Robyn instantly knew what the letter said; that there was no hope of help from the other isles. Robyn frowned, glancing over at Emily who was swinging her arms out, her eyes on the whale ships passing by as if in a daydream.

"This news is very bad," the Empress sighed, her eyes still searching the note as if looking upon it longer would earn her answers. "I had hoped that one of the other cities had dealt with this before, knew of some cure… We're at the breaking point,"

Corvo lowered his head while Robyn's frown deepened, the two watching as the Empress dropped the letter to the ground. Robyn could see the anger in the woman as clear as if the Empress were made of glass and there was fire that flared within her.

"Cowards! They're going to blockade us," she snapped, her eyes on the harbor and the ocean beyond. "They'll wait to see if the plague turns the city into a graveyard,"

"Are you alright, mother?" Emily asked with a frown. "You seem sad,"

The Empress turned, forcing a smile onto her face as she touched Emily's cheek. "Yes, don't worry, darling. Mother is fine,"

Robyn glanced over at Corvo with a frown but froze when she saw something disappear suddenly from view. She moved her eyes over Corvo's shoulder to the rooftop across from the gazebo, freezing at the sight of familiar whaler's masks and the chilling darkness as figures appeared and disappeared from sight. The distant scent of sewer water and sulfur didn't help to dissuade the churning in Robyn's stomach.

"Corvo," Robyn breathed.

Corvo looked over at her before following her line of sight to what she feared.

"Assassins,"

"Mother, look!" Emily pointed, squinting her eyes. "What are they doing on the rooftop?"

"What?!" the Empress gasped, watching as the Whalers became more bold. "Emily, come here! Where are the guards?! Emily, get behind me!"

Robyn and Corvo unsheathed their weapons in unison as Whalers appeared in an evanescence of darkness at the gazebo. Robyn dropped back as Corvo shot the first Whaler to come at him, moving until she stood in front of the Empress and Emily. Corvo fought well considering that the Whalers were rumored to have been touched by the darkness of the Outsider. They constantly appeared and disappeared around him, swinging and slashing as Corvo fought them with skill that he'd gained over years of training.

"Look out! Another one!"

Robyn fired her crossbow at the Whaler that had been coming at Corvo from behind. Just like Corvo's bullets, the bolt didn't hit the Whaler but instead carried through as he disappeared.

Darkness suddenly surrounded Robyn before a Whaler appeared directly in front of her, sword already held to her throat. Before the metal could slice through the flesh of her throat, Robyn arched backward, letting the sword continue before sidestepping and bringing her own sword up to draw it toward her and away from the Empress. Sidestepping into the Whaler, she elbowed him in the side and brought her knee up when he coughed. He disappeared in a flash of darkness and the smell of sulfur, sewer water, and blood, leaving behind him an eerie silence as the two Royal Protectors stood looking at each other with weapons still drawn.

Emily instantly broke away from her mother to charge at Corvo. He quickly sheathed his weapons before catching her in his arms, hugging her to him as she clung to him desperately. Robyn frowned at him, their eyes not leaving each other as the same feeling of unease coiled in their stomachs and the icy trickle went up their spines. So Robyn kept her sword out, merely lowering it as the Empress stepped out from behind her.

"Corvo, Robyn… thank you," the Empress breathed, looking between the both of them. "If you two hadn't been here-"

But before she could finish, another Whaler appeared raising his hands to Corvo, raising the Lord Protector up into the air in a grip that he could not escape.

"No, no more! Not again!" the Empress gasped.

"Mommy!"

Robyn charged forward, swinging her sword at the Whaler only to have her sword lock with another. Her eyes met cool blue ones that she'd never thought to see again. Daud would never give up killing the Empress to one of his Whalers and only Daud would be sure enough to allow his face to be seen as he performed the deed. Robyn's heart clenched in fear as his stared down at her, the two forcing the other way with a slash of a sword.

"You don't want to do this, Daud," Robin growled, forcing the fear down and away.

"Oh, I think I do," he smirked, his scratchy voice taunting her. "Get out of the way, Shadow. You can't stop me,"

"Maybe not-" Robyn slashed at him, barely catching him by surprise but just enough to knock him back just a step. She followed him, swinging at him as the Empress and Emily screamed for Robyn to help them. It was a losing fight if Robyn was being honest, there was no way she could win against the Knife of Dunwall. Even with her years of building up fighting skills with Corvo, Robyn was a shadow.

Robyn was suddenly surrounded by the smell of sulfur and sewer water as she felt something tug her, as if she had a string attached to her chest. She lost her footing as she was pulled towards Daud who stood waiting for her, his gloved hand glowing with a darkness she recognized all too well. She gasped as he reached for her with the same hand, his palm touching her forehead before she dropped.

_You cannot save her._

"We're even, Shadow,"

_You cannot save her._

Everything was swimming.

_You cannot save her._

Her body felt like her center of gravity had been moved whilst she was falling through space and time.

_You cannot save her._

The only thing she was truly aware of was the soft voice that filled her mind in a chilling caress, telling her the one thing she didn't want to hear;

_You cannot save her._

Her eyes were seeing multiples of everything while the world crumbled and reshaped itself in a form she recognized from her dreams.

_You cannot save her._

The air around her shuttered as her ears rang with sounds she recognized and sounds that matched the horrifying sight of what was happening only five feet from her.

_You cannot save her._

"_Corvo!_"

_You cannot save her._

Robyn's eyes cleared just enough to watch as Daud sunk his blade deep into the Empress's heart, drawing the breath from her as she fell to the ground.

_You cannot save her._

"_Mommy!_" Emily cried, running away from the Whalers. "_Get away! Robyn, help! Corvo!_"

The Whaler, with Emily in his arms, disappeared in an evanescence of darkness, letting Corvo drop to the ground with the absence of his power. Before following after, Daud frowned down at both Protectors, an obvious understanding in his eyes that Robyn herself had yet to understand.

With the threats gone, Robyn slowly got to her feet, trying to steady herself against the railing of the gazebo even as her stomach churned and her mouth watered with the need to empty her stomach. But she kept the urge in check as her eyes moved to Corvo, who cradled the Empress in his arms, his eyes swimming with emotions though no wetness ever fell.

"Corvo… it's all… coming apart," the Empress gasped, trying to get the words out. "Find… Find Emily. Protect her. You're the only one. You'll know what to do. Won't you? Corvo?"

The Empress faded in Corvo's body, her body sagging until she touched the stone of the gazebo again, the stone stained with her blood. Tears warmed Robyn's eyes as she approached slowly, almost afraid that if she got too close it would all become too real. She'd failed the Empress, failed Corvo, failed Emily… she'd failed Dunwall. But as she grew closer nothing changed, the Empress still lay dead beside Corvo who was staring blankly down at the stained stone.

"Corvo?"

She carefully touched his shoulder, drawing his dazed gaze.

"I'm so sorry,"

They were suddenly interrupted by the sounds of running footsteps, guards appearing around them with swords drawn. Corvo, forced to leave the Empress's side, stood and stepped back until he was even with Robyn, allowing one of the guards to check on the Empress. The Royal Spymaster and the High Overseer appeared behind them, their eyes hard as they looked from the body of the Empress to the two Royal Protectors.

"Ward us all, look at what they've done," the High Overseer exclaimed, staring down at the Empress.

"What?" Robyn frowned, shocked that he'd come to that conclusion.

"Yes, _they've_ killed the Empress," the Spymaster agreed instantly.

"Her own bodyguards. Ironic,"

Robyn stared. "What are you talking about? It was the Whalers?!"

"A likely story from a street rat," the High Overseer frowned at her, looking down his nose at her like she were nothing. "I told the Empress when she first brought you to Dunwall Tower that she'd regret having you. Now look at what's been done,"

"What did you do with young lady Emily, traitors?" the Spymaster exclaimed, looking around to find no sign of the girl. He turned to them and glared. "I'll see you both beheaded for this. Take them,"

"Wai-!"

The hilt of a sword connected with her temple, dropping her to the ground and into darkness.

_Several Months Later…_

Robyn fought the shackles that'd been placed her, keeping her in place in the interrogation chair. She snarled and lashed out at the guards that held her down, keeping her from breaking free and ripping the Spymaster's (currently Lord Regent but she'd rather vomit than even think it) hooked nose right off his smug face. She fought like the street rat he'd called her, spitting and hissing despite every lesson of decorum that Corvo and the Empress had taught her whilst her time in Dunwall Tower and her own mother before them.

She'd been dishonored by this prick. Named a traitor, a murderer…

"Is she strapped in right?" the Spymaster asked, getting a nod from the guards. "Good. You may leave now, gentlemen,"

Robyn watched as the guards left through the only door, leaving her in the hands of the Spymaster and the Royal Interrogator, better known as the Torturer both in Dunwall's streets and even Dunwall Tower. Robyn had heard nightmarish tales of things that the Royal Interrogator had done to innocent people sent to Coldridge for mere tidbits of information. Born to a wealthy family that had been interbreeding for years, Morris Sullivan had practically been born blinking sideways but that didn't make him any less dangerous.

"Comfortable?" the Spymaster asked, stroking his chin as he looked her over. Robyn shifted uncomfortably in her seat under his gaze, glad that she had been allowed her modest uniform during her time at Coldridge so far.

In response to his question, she spat at him, her spit landing a little short of him.

He frowned down at it and then glanced up at her. "Doesn't look like much, does she?"

The Torturer made a sound as he fingered a few of his torture implements.

"But apparently she nearly fooled the guards with her old tricks," the Spymaster continued as if the Torturer actually cared to hear his words. "She climbed up and hid over the door of her cell, hanging from a protruding rod like a monkey. She took out two guards before the rest overwhelmed her," He smiled as he leaned toward her, pressing a finger into the fresh bruise on her cheek. "Gave her this for her trouble,"

Robyn jerked her head around and tried to catch his gloved fingers between her teeth in an attempt to relieve him of one of his traitorous fingers. Unfortunately, he was fast enough to remove his hand from her and out of her line of bite. He glared down at her as he clasped his hands behind him, turning his back to her to walk to his desk.

"Alright, we'll get this done," the Spymaster snapped as he sat down at his desk and began to scribble across a paper, mumbling to himself as he wrote.

Robyn watched him until her eyes caught the Torturer stepping towards her with a hammer.

"Let's start with your confession over killing the Empress," the Spymaster spoke without looking up from his paper. "And then we'll move on to what you've done to Lady Emily,"

"You would be better at that, Spymaster," Robyn snapped at him in a low voice. "After all, you're the one behind all of this. Corvo and I were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,"

"Now, now," he frowned, setting down his pen to clasp his hands beneath his chin to look up at her. "No need to place blame where it is unneeded. Don't want to add treason to your list of counts against you. It's time that a little street rat like you paid for her years of cheating the system,"

"I didn't-"

"Oh, but you did," he interrupted, getting up from his seat to walk towards her. "You've cheated it time and time again. First as the Shadow of Dunwall, cheating the lords and ladies of their money to give to those who should have died long ago, and then again when you arrived at Dunwall Tower. You should have been sent straight to prison for your years of theft but instead you were welcomed by both the Empress and the Lord Protector with open arms. You should have been sent to Coldridge long ago,"

Robyn remained silent, glaring up at him.

"Too bad for you it seems," he smiled, leaning down towards her. "Because you won't be getting any sympathy from me,"

He held out a hand, a smirk on his face that made Robyn worried.

"Royal Interrogator?"

Robyn watched as the Spymaster was handed a knife, one that seemed more for gruesome show than for actual cutting. But she jerked back when he brought it closer to her, seeming to enjoy her fear as he came ever closer.

His hand shot out, gripping her loose hair in his hand with a rough tug. Robyn gasped, fighting his hold on her hair frantically as he brought the knife closer. Her hair had always been the one thing she treasured, the one thing she allowed herself in this world of cruel misfortunes and death. It was the only beautiful thing that she had and she didn't want it to be taken from her by this man.

Pain bit into her scalp as she heard the sound of cutting too close to her ear. She felt more than saw her hair leave her head and meet the floor, her head lightening with the absence. Tears prickled her eyes but she refused to let them fall as she felt the knife bite into her scalp as the Spymaster clumsily cut her hair with the dull blade, not taking any care.

After a long and painful five minutes, the Spymaster stepped away from her, revealing her partially bald head with her dark locks strewn about the floor. Her head was covered in different lengths of short tuffs of hair along with nicks and cuts that littered her skull, blood oozing down and into her eyes. It left her looking both broken and enraged, her eyes ablaze as they met the Spymaster's.

If she had a chance in the future, she was going to feed him his own fingers.

"Now," he smiled happily, turning to return to his desk with his papers. "I want you to do the right thing and confess to your crimes. That way this can all be over with. You won't have to endure any of the… interrogation techniques… we have waiting for you,"

Robyn glared, remaining silent.

"Fine… Royal Interrogator, if you'd please,"

Robyn barely saw the hammer come up before it was brought down on her hand. Her heart clenched in fear as her breath stopped in her chest, the sound of the bones in her hand breaking meeting her ears long before the feeling of the hammer did. It was a sickening sound that was a great deal more alarming than anything that Robyn had heard before, worsened by the fact that it was happening to her. She cried out at the burning pain of her hand, her back arching against her seat as her teeth snapped together with a loud clink. She gasped as the pain folded her forward, her body hunching over as her mind focused solely on her hand. It made her dizzy, tears burning her eyes as she felt the urge to vomit because of the pain.

"Hmm," the Spymaster frowned, his eyes still on his paper. "I can't quite tell if she felt that or not. But perhaps it has loosened her tongue a bit?"

Robyn raised her head up, her eyes on the Spymaster in a dangerous glare. "I… will not confess to a crime I did not commit,"

"Nothing? Alright,"

The scream caught in her throat this time, her throat convulsing as she fought to get the sound out. It left her desperate for breath as her body tried to pull in air despite the pain, her chest heavy with pain and convulsions. When her throat finally cleared she took in a long drag of air that made her sound as if she'd been drowning.

Her hand was burning bright with pain, the stinging ache running up her arm and making her heart thud with each heart beat as if the Torturer's hammer had been able to come down on her heart as well. The pain was making her head swim and her eyes water whilst her mind clicked dumbly with random thoughts.

_Will my hand never be of use again?_

_How many had endured the same thing?_

_How much pain will I have to endure until I pass out?_

_What if I confess to something I didn't do?_

_How many people has the Torturer practiced this on?_

_Had the Empress known that her Royal Interrogator was a monster?_

_Am I going to die here?_

_Yes._

"That's enough,"

Those words almost made her cry with relief, no matter how brief it might be.

She heard footsteps approach her but she didn't look up, instead letting her head hang down with her chin against her chest. Not only was it the only thing she felt like she could do at that moment but she also didn't want to give him the satisfaction of having her attention.

"We will get the information out of you eventually, street rat," he told her, his face close to hers with his breath on her ear. "We will break you and you will give us what we want,"

His footsteps faded and guards came in, unlocking her manacles to drag her from the room and back to her cell. They flung her in, forcing her to fall onto her shoulder to keep her wounded hand safe from hitting the ground. She groaned when she landed against the mucky ground, the cell door closing with a resounding clink that wasn't at all inspiring to her. Robyn lay on the floor for a long moment as their footsteps disappeared, feeling the mind numbing pains and aches of her body before she dared moving.

"_Robyn?_"

She frowned, slumping up into a sitting position against the bars. She didn't dare look at Corvo, whose cell was just across the way from hers. She knew the frown that would be on his face as he looked at her cut up bald head, the pity he would display when he saw her mutilated hand. He wasn't one for big emotions and wouldn't say it but it would be hidden in his eyes. She wasn't sure that she could look him in the eyes.

"Robyn. What did they do to you?"

She took a deep breath, tears coming to her eyes at the mere thought of putting it into words. It was like accepting what had happened was worse than just ignoring it and wallowing in her cell until they came and got her next. If she told Corvo they had broken the bones in her left hand then she'd have to accept that she was probably never going to be able to move her fingers again. She would probably never be able to rightly handle a sword or a crossbow… or even hold normal everyday things. And then if she told Corvo they had cut her hair then she'd have to accept that she was no longer pretty… it was stupid to be so upset by it… but it had been her one luxury in this life, the one thing that reminded her of her mother.

"_You have such lovely hair, my little Robyn," her mother smiled as she brushed little six year old Robyn's hair back from her face. _

_Robyn smiled, tilting her head this way and that as her mother's fingers grazed her scalp soothingly as she played with her favorite doll. It was one of Robyn's favorite things to do. She would always beg her mother to brush her hair and put pretty ribbons in it because she knew how much her mother liked her hair. While Robyn had pretty dark hair her mother had ginger colored hair that frizzed within the confines of the braid it was always in. So Robyn liked how much her mother liked her hair. _

"_How about a pony tail today?" her mother asked, earning a bob of the head from Robyn. "Here we go then,"_

_Robyn giggled as her mother smoothed her hair back into the high ponytail, flipping her head this way and that when her mother finally let her go. She stood up and flipped her head again, the hair swinging around her like a whip in a way that felt funny to Robyn. She grinned brightly as she looked back at her mother who was smiling too._

"_Thank you, mum!"_

Robyn wished she could still feel those delicate fingers grazing her scalp through the long locks of dark hair she'd once had. But now all she had was small tuffs of brown with stinging cuts that littered her head like rat bites.

"They-" She was cut off by her own sob, a tear falling down her cheek before she could stop herself. She silenced herself and took in a deep breath. "They… They cut off my hair,"

He remained silent, probably to allow her to mourn for a second before she could tell him what he actually wanted to know, to tell him something that he didn't already know.

"And they've broken my hand," she told him with a sniff, looking down at the mutilated hand she was cradling against her chest. "I don't think…"

"You need to set the fingers, put the bones back where they should be," Corvo told her, his voice soft so as not to carry too far but still reassuring. "I doubt you'll ever get the full use back but if you don't set them you definitely won't have any use. You need to try to push them back into place,"

That wasn't what Robyn wanted to hear, especially when she was the one looking down at the horrid state of her hand. It looked like some sort of horrible twisted vine bush, every finger looking slightly off while the palm of her hand was swollen up and fat. The mere idea of having to touch it, to right what had been wronged by the Torturer's hammer, nearly made her vomit on its own. How was she supposed to set her own hand?

"Or you can leave it,"

Robyn felt the familiar feeling of stubbornness flare up in her chest, something that gave her the strength to lift her hand from her chest. As gently as she could, she took her pointer finger in her other hand, taking a deep breath as she readied herself for something she was sure would be worse than the initial breaking of her hand. With a deep breath… she yanked hard, pulling it straight and leaving her whole arm flaring with a burning fire whilst her eyes watered and her head swam.

"_Quiet down back there!_"

"Bastards," Robyn snapped quietly, fighting the burning in her throat as tears fell.

"You might only be able to do one finger at a time, Robyn. Don't overwork yourself,"

Robyn nodded her head in a lazy motion, using her good hand to pull her up by the rusty bars. It took her a moment to steady herself once she got to her feet, her whole center of gravity feeling off as she eyed her cot. If only she could get there she could go to sleep, maybe get a couple hours of forgetting what had happened to her and what would be happening to her for what would probably be for the rest of her life.

She closed her eyes to see if that would settle her stomach but it only seemed to make the dizziness worse so she opened her eyes again. Her eyes met dark brown ones that looked black in the dim light of the cellblock, dark with exhaustion, betrayal, and worry. His body was crouched down in front of the bars of his cell to get as close to her as he could so she could hear him without drawing the guards. It wasn't an image she'd ever think she would actually see, unless the one of her behind bars and him glaring down at her criminal self counted. But that had been long ago, before he and the Empress had given her an option to be an apprentice protector…

And that landed her in the same spot regardless.

She frowned as she sat down on her cot, leaning her back up against the concrete wall, feeling the cold of the stone seeping through her uniform and into the skin of her back.

"They think I'm going to break first, damn sexist pigs," Robyn snapped as she leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. "They'll probably work me for a while until they realize I won't give them what they want,"

"What is it they want?"

"A confession," she told him, wincing a little as a spasm in her hand stung her. "They want me to sign a confession that will damn both of us to the executioners block. Not that we aren't headed that way regardless… you heard the guards,"

Corvo remained silent and Robyn let him, enjoying the feeling of exhaustion that was pulling her down into unconsciousness. Not only was her body weak with pain and needed sleep but after everything that had happened over the past week… her mind was exhausted as well.

"Robyn?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry this has happened to you,"

She forced her eyes open, meeting his dark ones through the bars. "We're in this together… I just wish we'd been able to do our job better,"

Corvo's eyes closed, his head turning away from her. "That we could have protected Emily,"

Robyn frowned, realizing that not only was Emily missing and in the hands of the Whalers that would no doubt sell her to the highest bidder… but she and Corvo would never get the chance to save her. It made Robyn's heart ache to think what the world would do to poor Emily without Corvo and her to protect her from it.

"If we get out," Robyn spoke up. "We will find her. I swear that to you, Corvo,"

He frowned at her and walked to the back of his cell to his stained cot.

They both knew they would never get out of Coldridge. The only people who managed to escape Coldridge had always had help from the outside, whether someone had conned their way in to break someone out or someone had bribed the guards, there had always been help. But Corvo and Robyn had no one on the outside to help them.

They were alone.

They had been dishonored.

* * *

**Author's Note: Review?**


	4. A Door Wide Open

**The Shadow of Dunwall**

* * *

**Chapter 4 – A Door Wide Open**

* * *

The Torturer drew closer with his iron clutched in his hand, the end blazing bright and threatening. Robyn pushed herself as far back into the interrogation chair as she could, seeking solace in a chair that had held thousands of people at bay during the same moments pain. She tried to kick out at him, forcing him away from her but it was no use with her feet held at bay by manacles on her ankles. She was simply left to sit there and watch as the burning heat grew closer and closer.

"No! _No!_"

In an instant, she felt herself enveloped in the smell of incense, almost so intense that it burned the inside of her nose as she breathed in. The sound of the ocean filled her ears and soothed her soul, bringing her down from the pain induced fear and back to reality… or somewhere between reality and death. It made Robyn's fingers curl with curiosity, forcing her eyes open to find that she was no longer manacled to the interrogation chair, no longer faced with the Torturer or his white hot iron. Instead she was surrounded by nothingness tinged with a peaceful purple-blue, the feeling of cold, and the smell of the incense and the sea.

Despite the twinge in her chest as she stared up into open space that was beautiful, it made her unsteady. As much as she would have liked to have pretended this was all a dream, she knew it wasn't truly a dream, not when she'd been to a place like this before. Its purple hued washed over her in a cold intensity that breathed like the Void, spoke of the sea and of the emptiness of all else. This was the home of the Outsider, the place where things began and ended.

"_**Hello, Robyn**_,"

Robyn sat up like a shot, her eyes instantly on the man hover over her, literally hovering a foot or two of the group. His face and eyes were blank, his pupils engulfed by his black eyes, the kind of black that didn't reflect light but instead seemed to draw it in. It was frightening to see such man hovering before her, especially when in a place that held little else.

But she knew this man, from her dreams as a child, from the stories.

"**What a sad hand Fate has dealt you, little bird**," he sighed in a monotone way that held little pity, his eyes on her as she slowly got to her feet. "**Your parents killed by the plague but you endure to help those of Dunwall, only to be caught by the tail**,"

Robyn frowned up at him.

Yes… she'd literally been caught by that man years back and forced to take him to Dunwall Tower, only to be caught by Corvo. But she knew better than to think that this was information the Outsider simply knew. She remembered the putrid smell of the sewers in the air and had felt the magic that day, the magic that originated from this floating figure before her. It was just as much his fault as it was hers for being caught.

"**You are caught by the infamous Royal Protector but yet you saved the Empress when she would have died-**"

"By _your_ magic," Robyn interrupted, eyeing him carefully. "I remember that day, Outsider. You had your hand in it just as much as fate did,"

The first true emotion flashed across his face; amusement. "**Indeed. One with my Mark set what Fate had in store for you in motion… but I do not meddle**,"

Robyn snorted in an unladylike manner, rolling her eyes.

"**And because of that day, you became the Lady Protector. From a street rat to a woman of power with the mighty Tower of Dunwall. A life many of Dunwall would have wished upon themselves**,"

Robyn glanced away from him, off to the side where she hadn't noticed a whale to have been floating. She glared at it until she realized that she suddenly felt someone behind her, forcing her to turn around only to find the Outsider there.

"What-?"

"**But now your Empress is dead and everyone believes you and Corvo to be the killers**," With his hands tucked behind his back, he let a quirk at the corner of his lips appear as he bent at the waist, leaning down towards her as if to whisper a secret. "**But we know what **_**really**_** happened, don't we?**"

Robyn took a step back only to find him gone, a hand appearing on her back to stop her. She jumped coming face to face with the Outsider, who now had touched ground, his head tilted down to look her in the face. She took a surprised breath in, the smell of sea almost too intense to be pleasant. It wasn't the type of sea that she was used to either, instead of the mucked up water that was home to dead bodies and rotting fish with the occasionally waft of the city, this smelled like how she imagined the water used to smell like before the plague. It didn't necessarily smell clean… but it smelled like salt and musk.

"**And now they've nearly killed you**," he told her, his voice quite in its rage. "**Broken the robin's wings and sapped away the spirit of the Shadow…**"

"But I'm not dead," she snapped back at him, her strength in her eyes.

This had him smirking, another true emotion that set her on edge.

"**That's true**," he nodded, stepping away from her and into the air to hover again. "**And you don't want to end your life to the sound of idiots cheering as your head hits the muck, do you?**"

Robyn watched him careful, weighing his words in his mind. What was he suggesting? That she somehow escape from Coldridge and gain vengeance? It was almost laughable. That fact that she was standing was a dream induced miracle that she knew wasn't true when she returned to her waking self. Her body was mostly broken thanks to the past six months of being healed of injuries they only seemed to inflict over again.

"No," she answered him after a long moment, though she wasn't sure he was really asking her the question. "But it's too bad there's nothing to be done about it. Unless you have one of your magical heretics running around to try to free Corvo before the execution,"

"**No**," he answered. "**So, let's see if we can do better**,"

Robyn gasped in surprise when a burning sting bit into the back of her hand. It might not have been such a pain, given what she'd endured in the past six months, except that she hadn't expected it until it was already over. She took her pained hand into her other to find that a symbol had been emblazoned on the back of it.

"What…?"

"**He will pull you from the muck**," the Outsider told her, causing her to look up from the brand to meet his eyes. "**Let's see if you can't help keep him out of it**,"

"Who?" she asked as he started to fade from her sight. "Corvo? How am I supposed to keep him out of 'the muck' when I can't even stand? Or when we have an execution scheduled for tomorrow? There's no one in Dunwall that's going to help us! _We have no way out!_"

Darkness was descending over her eyes, leaving her with the sting of the mark on her hand while the rest of her body grew numb with cold. But as the Outsider slowly faded from her sight, she could feel the power of his presence at her back, a freezing breath ghosting against the shell of her ear.

"_**And why would you remain imprisoned when your cell door is wide open?**__"_

"_Robyn_,"

Robyn frowned, forcing her eyes to open despite feeling the tug of sleep. Much to her surprise, she realized that the voice that beckoned her belonged to Corvo, and had not been shouted across the expanse of the cell block. Robyn opened her eyes to find Corvo crouched over her… In her cell.

"Corvo? How the hell did you get out of your cell? How are you here?"

"An interested friend," he told her, revealing the key dangling from his fingers before shoving it back into his pocket. He then slipped his hands under her shoulders to help her sit up in her cot, levering her into a sitting position despite her whimpered protest. "Come on. We need to go,"

Robyn frowned, shaking her head. "You have a better chance of getting out alone, let alone with someone as injured as I am,"

Over the past six months in Coldridge, Robyn had taken a great deal of damage. Her hands had been broken and healed multiple times to the point that she wasn't sure splints and remedies would actually help her anymore. If she didn't get early arthritis in her fingers because of the amount of breaks and sprains in her fingers then she would have to see if hounds flew in Pandisia.

She was also covered from head to do in cuts, bruises, burns, and a smattering or broken bones that were still healing. Burrows, the sexist pig, had commended her for her ability to survive such injuries and had given up on trying to break her. She'd been left alone for the past month whilst Corvo had gotten the brunt of the torture.

But the truth was that the only strength that she really had left was strength in the knowledge that she would not break and condemn Corvo to death and strength in the knowledge that she would not be alive for much longer. She kept these thoughts to herself, allowing them to keep her alive even though everyone knew she should have long since she died, if not from her injuries then from the infection and plague that no doubt had set in.

"Go," she urged him, shrugging him off of her.

Corvo shook his head, his face serious. "I won't leave you,"

"Corvo-"

"No," he interrupted. "We'll get out and find Emily. _Together_,"

Robyn would have rolled her eyes if she'd had more energy to do so. She knew that he was just saying this because he felt some need to protect her when he had no one else to protect. He wanted to save her like she was some sort of damsel in distress. They both knew he had a better chance of actually making it out of Coldridge if he wasn't pulling a half dead woman behind him. But that didn't mean he was going to smart enough to leave her.

_**And why would you remain imprisoned when your cell door is wide open?**_

She glanced down at the hands that lay limply in her lap. To her utter surprised, neither was covered in olds scars or plump with swelling, they were merely covered in muck and grime. However, on her left hand, stamped dark in the dim lighting of her cells, was the mark.

She looked up at Corvo, meeting his eyes to display her seriousness to him. "Alright,"

He nodded. "Come on,"

She quickly stopped him, holding up a hand. "But if you have to decide between me and the door, you better chose the door," She left the threat at that, knowing that he'd understand how serious she was, hoping that he would make the right decision given the situation.

Again, he nodded.

She allowed him to help her up but she pushed him off when he moved to wrap her mostly uninjured arm around her shoulders. If she could help it, she was going to walk herself out of Coldridge at Corvo's side, not carried out like some sort of damsel.

He let her, leading her out of the cell without a word.

Robyn did her best to carry herself through Coldridge but it quickly became obvious that her time there had taken a toll on her. After several burns, cuts and breaks to her legs she'd stopped exercising herself the way she knew she needed to. This left her legs nearly useless with the pain and her short of breath as they began to make their way through the prison. It meant that they were slow making their way through the prison but Corvo never said a word, simply kept his eyes open as he kept her behind him, pausing when a guard came too close. It also meant that they came up with a system as they made their way through the prison, made up of Robyn as a distraction while Corvo took care of guards to clear the way for the two of them. They never killed however, a controversy between the two of them as they traveled through the compound;

"_You can't kill them,"_

_Corvo looked over at her with a raised eyebrow, displaying just how right in the head he believed her to be. She returned the favor with her own eyebrow raise that hurt one of her scabbed over cuts._

"_Oh, and it would seem so innocent of the Empress's murders to kill every guard on their way out of Coldridge?"_

"_We can't leave enemies at our back,"_

"_We're already charged with every illegal thing in the book, don't add two dozen killings to it as well," she snapped at him, glancing around the corner to see the broad back of the guard. "Knock them out, choke them… something. But don't kill them,"_

He'd conceded the point and had taken to incapacitating the guards before returning to her side. They made it all the way to the Interrogation Room to retrieve the bomb that Corvo's note had told him it would be. He left her in the main room while he looked around in the back room where the safe was. This left her to pocket all of the gold in the desk along with slip the audio card sticking out of the audio player into her pocket. The odds were that it wouldn't survive the trip out of Coldridge and into someone's hands who could use it, but it was worth a shot nonetheless. Also on the desk were several letters, two of which having her and Corvo's names at the top, drawing her attention. On top was Corvo's;

_Duty Officer's Report, Corvo's Interrogation_

_Corvo Attano, formerly the Royal Protector, will be brought in for interrogation. This is of utmost importance. The Lord Regent and High Overseer Campbell will conduct the questioning themselves. Follow their orders without hesitation, and keep the torturer under control. If Corvo dies in his hands, instead of getting the public execution the Lord Regent wants, it'll be your head that rolls next. _

She couldn't help but grin a little down at the letter as she glanced back at the door that Corvo had disappeared through. Corvo would get out and create a whole mess of trouble for all of those traitorous bastards, that was for sure.

Next was her letter;

_Duty Officer's Report, Robyn's Interrogation_

_Due to past interrogation methods it has been ordered that Robyn Sark, formerly the Lady Protector, will remain in her cell at all times. Lord Regent believes that further interrogation of Robyn will possibly cause her death and he wants the public execution. However, the traitor is to be given the option of signing the written confession every twenty-four hours until the day of the execution. _

A bit of stubbornness flared in her chest as she returned the letters. She was going to make it if she had to drag herself out with the little strength she had left. There was no way she was going to allow them to end her _traitorous_ life if she could help it. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

With the explosive in hand, she and Corvo made their way through the prison yard without alerting any of the guards as they passed. This was shocking mostly because the sound of Robyn's shuffling feet should have been enough to alert anyone. But they made it past and through the next rooms without incident, shutting the blast door behind them before placing the explosive.

Corvo shielded her from the blast before lifting her up into his arms like a child as he ran out the broken metal doors, skidding to a stop at the edge of the lifted bridge. It was over one hundred and fifty yards to the water below which was shallow almost everywhere, welcoming them to their death.

"Hold on,"

Robyn gripped the fabric of his worn uniform with more strength that she had as they plunged towards the water. The water's surface hit them hard before swallowing them in a chilling embrace that made Robyn gasp too soon. Corvo dragged her back up to the surface where she coughed up water desperately, her body feeling as if it would finally give out on her at any moment.

"Come on, Robyn," Corvo breathed harshly into her ear as she shook.

Robyn kept a hold on Corvo as he dragged them out of the water and up the rocks towards the tunnel into the sewers. The stench was almost welcoming as they entered, slamming the metal door shut and baring it behind them. Robyn sagged against the ground as Corvo made sure the door was secure above her.

"Stay with me, Robyn,"

Her eyes snapped open the second she realized they had closed, her eyes meeting his dark brown ones as he gripped her shoulders. The pressure he put on them pinned her to the wall, almost as if he were trying to pin her there instead of allowing her to fade into nothingness. It focused her enough to glare at him, trying to remember what it felt like not to be exhausted… or cold… or wet… or in pain. She was shaking, her hands stinging with cold and exhaustion that was making her jittery, the surface of her skin stinging as old wounds made themselves known.

"Just give me a minute," she asked him, her voice hoarse with exhaustion as her eyelids grew heavier each time she blinked. "I can't-"

"_Robyn,_"

His hand gripped her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his as he glared at her.

"We just need to get through the sewers," he told her, his voice hard like the Lord Protector that had given orders during her years in Dunwall Tower. She found it amusing that he was trying to order her to remain awake and alive when she felt like she had nothing left. "I'll carry you but you've got to meet me halfway. Stay awake,"

She frowned at him, unsure whether the wavering in his voice was because of his own exhaustion or because he was worried about her. She supposed it was a little bit of both.

"I need you here and with me so that we can go find Emily,"

That one struck a chord inside of her.

Emily needed to be found and saved. Robyn had promised that she was going to protect the Empress and Lady Emily. She'd already failed the Empress. She couldn't fail the Emily.

"I hate you, Corvo," she snapped at him, a hint of humor in her voice.

He nodded at her. "Good,"

He lifted her up and laid her across his back, using clothe he found nearby to tie her legs to him whilst he forced her to keep her arms locked around his neck herself. She would have smacked him if she'd had the energy to, but she was using it to keep herself from sliding off Corvo.

"Another note from our friend,"

She glanced up as he held up the letter for the two of them to read.

_Corvo, if you're reading this it means our plan worked and you've broken free from Coldridge. One of our contacts has hidden weapons for you somewhere deeper in the sewers. Grab the gear and find Samuel where these tunnels dump out into the river. He will bring you to us._

_A Friend Who Will Meet You Soon_

She frowned. "That letter doesn't mention anything about a straggler, Corvo. They won't be welcoming to the half dead woman you've dragged along with you through the sewers,"

"They'll have to be," Corvo told her without hesitation, climbing up a stack of boxes and onto the grates. "If they've gone to this much trouble to get me out, it means that I am of value to them. And you're with me,"

Robyn remained silent, tucking her face into the side of his neck to shut her eyes.

The journey through the sewers was a long and tiring one with many obstacles between them and their destination. Robyn kept her face buried in the back of his neck and her hands locked around her wrist as he climbed around various obstacles and jumped here and there. His hair, which had grown into a shaggy mess around his head, tickled her face while his scent, as powerful as it was, kept her grounded. Not to say Robyn didn't fade out several times only to wake up to Corvo shouting at her. It was annoying more than anything but she stayed with him, hating him for forcing her to remain awake when her body was begging for relief.

He could have left her in Coldrigde! It would have made for an easier escape and wouldn't exhaust him as she knew he was. But he'd insisted on forcing her to keep her damn promise to him, insisted on saving her life. He was a stubborn ass.

Corvo chuckled against her and she suddenly realized that she'd said that last bit out loud.

The first bit of relief she felt was when Corvo reached the gear that had been left for him. Along with a collapsible sword and a crossbow, there was a note waiting for him from the interested party. This letter however, held a great deal more information than the last had, revealing a bit more of the goals that they had for Corvo.

_Greetings, Corvo. Or should I say Lord Protector, as you were known before that title was wrongfully taken from you._

_We are servants of the Empire and of the true Empress, a group of loyalists who want very much to meet you. Take these weapons, crafter for you of the finest materials in the Isles, and meet with our man, Samuel, near where these tunnels spill into Wrenhaven River._

_All haste and luck. We share a common purpose._

"Well you certainly have been struck with the right people," Robyn commented, her head feeling light and dizzy as she closed her eyes again. "They weren't lying about those weapons they gave you. Those would be worth more money than any of the lords would be willing to dole out for them. Theses friends will be the perfect allies to aid you in finding Emily,"

"Aid _us_," Corvo corrected, giving a tight squeeze to her thigh to get her attention. "The fact that you are not only an addition to me but are also the Shadow will be too much to turn away,"

Robyn opened her mouth and bit his shoulder lightly through his dirty uniform. It caused him to chuckle as he tucked the letter into his pocket and continued through the tunnels.

It was only when Robyn felt fresh air on her face that she felt true relief, allowing her to open her eyes with an actual energy. The sky was bright despite the grey clouds that dotted it, the grey-green ocean reflecting the light at her until she had to divert her eyes. It was nice to be outside again, having been kept in a windowless cell for the past six months. It gave her a newfound energy to look up at the figure standing at the shore, waving at them.

"_Over here! I'm a friend!_"

The man was standing near a boat on the waterfront, looking older than a lot of people alive today, given that the elderly and children tended to die of the plague first. He was probably well into his fifties and on by now, possibly due to the fact that he had a boat that kept him on the water and away from plague victims. But his face kind though she could see him in a position of authority in the past, an authority that led her to believe that most of his life had been spent on the sea.

This must be their Samuel and their way out.

"I'm Samuel, and that is a mighty large pack you have on your back, son," Samuel commented as Corvo walked up to him, stopping with his sword and crossbow still drawn. "I work for some good people who want very much to meet you. But they said you'd come out here alone,"

Robyn could feel Corvo straighten against her, his shoulders stiff. "I won't leave her,"

"And I can't say I blame you but… I don't know if she'll make the trip,"

"She'll make it,"

Robyn might have rolled her eyes if she wasn't so tired.

She could hear Samuel sigh. "Well, I can still hardly believe you made it on your own, but that the lass made it _with_ you… she deserves a chance and I'm likely to give it to her. I'll take you both to meet your saviors, just down the river from here,"

She felt Corvo nod. "Alright, old man. Let's go,"

Robyn remained relaxed as Corvo climbed into the boat with her still on his back, feeling his hands on her legs as he began to untie them from around his waist. He pulled her hands from her wrists and laid her across the seats in the boat as it gently took off down the river. She didn't bother helping him in any of this, she was too tired, and sleep was pulling at her more strongly than it ever had.

"Robyn?"

It was easier to open her eyes this time around. She was in a room with brick walls, lying on a mostly comfortable cot that was tucked into the corner of the room closest to the open doorway. It smelled differently in the room than she was used to when she breathed a breath in through her nose when she first woke up. She usually expected rat excrement, body odor, and smog when she woke up from a heavy sleep… but she could smell the sea.

She sat up in her cot, only regretting it a second later when she remembered her injuries. But the pain never came, instead just a vague stiffness in her body that told her she'd been lying still for a very long time. It had her looking down at herself with a frown to find that she was in her old uniform, mostly patched, with no wounds to speak of except for a memory of pain in her hands.

"What in the Void is going on here?"

What might have been a sound, or maybe it had been a feeling, had Robyn looking up towards the open doorway. She walked through into another unfamiliar room with a cot and a desk on the opposite wall. Also in the room she found Corvo standing in the doorway, the doorknob in his hand as he moved to walk out the door. He was silhouetted by purple hued light that gave her pause, the same way it seemed to be giving him pause, though he seemed much more shocked by it.

"Corvo?"

He froze, turning to look over at her from the doorway. His eyes pulled her towards him, as if he were the lifeline that was keeping her above the surface of the water. It brought her to the doorway, allowing her to glance away from him and out the door. Outside would have been a transition room from a hallway… but the wall had been destroyed to reveal the world outside… a world that floated and flowed in the wrong directions, with no gravity. She stared at the world outside, with purple hues that continued on forever and floating pieces of the world she was used to seeing, like whales and trees… except they were floating.

"The Void,"

She could hear his intake of breath but didn't look up at him. She'd been hear just today, had even met the figure that was said to live in the empty wasteland that they now stood in. But the fact that she was here yet again, and with Corvo no less, made a shiver run down her spine.

"… Well, we might as well find out what's going on,"

She made a move to step out into the world that was the Void when a hand on her wrist stopped her. She turned back to find that Corvo's frown had deepened, his gaze moving from her back to the purple hued world outside.

"I'll go first,"

Robyn couldn't help the way she rolled her eyes, nor could she resist allowing him his wish. She waited until he'd moved past her before continuing out of the building and into the open space of the Void… though it was an entirely different Void that the one that she'd seen before, even more different from the one that she glimpsed in her dreams. But then again, from the stories she'd heard, this place changed and shaped the world at its own volition, breaking up the world and leaving it empty, mirroring what it was and wasn't.

It made her feel on edge.

She followed after Corvo, all the way to the top of a flight of broken cobblestone steps and into a flat open area at the top. He stopped in front of her, most of his back blocking her view but she knew He was there long before she ever saw Him. She didn't need to step out from behind Corvo to know that the Outsider had brought them and was waiting to greet them.

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**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter has taken so long but this story isn't very high on my list of priorities. However, I really love this story and plan on finishing it. Thank you to everyone who wants to see this through with me. **

**Review?**


	5. In The Darkness of Dreams

**The Shadow of Dunwall**

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**Chapter 5 – In The Darkness of Dreams**

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"**Hello, Corvo**,"

Corvo's broad back blocked much of Robyn's view of the Outsider but it didn't mean that His voice didn't send a chill down her spine or leave a cold feeling in her left hand where the Mark had been branded. She could feel Him as if He were an extension of herself in this world, like an ever present spirit that touched her back to lead her forward.

It was a bit unsettling.

"**Your life has taken a turn, has it not? The Empress is dead, her precious daughter Emily is lost somewhere in the city, and you and your little bird will play a pivotal role in the days to come. For this I have chosen you and drawn you both into the Void**,"

Corvo remained silent, ever vigilant in the eyes of a predator.

"**I am the Outsider**," He greeted, His voice deceptively welcoming. "**And this is my Mark**,"

Robyn watched as Corvo twitched once, raising his hand to reveal the glowing Mark as it burned into the skin on the back of his left hand. He made no noise that it had hurt him or even surprised him to have suddenly gained this mark, but Robyn could see the shaking in his hand as he lowered it back to his side. His eyes moved to meet hers over his shoulder and at his glance she raised her own hand to reveal the black-blue mark that had been burned there just this morning. His face darkened into a frown as he returned his attention to the Outsider.

"**There are forces in the world and beyond the world, great forces that men call magic, and now these forces will serve your will**,"

Robyn shivered again at the idea of employing such monstrous gifts as the ones she'd seen during her time as the Shadow. She could still smell the bite of sulfur and the stink of sewer water in the air as she'd witnessed Daud's assassins flash in and out of existence as they made where way through Dunwall towards a target. She could still feel the cold chill in the air as she'd watched Granny Rags sing happily to herself while petting a rat or a chunk of bone. She could almost feel the sting in her lung from the gunshot that had made her the Apprentice Protector all those years ago. If it hadn't been for a Tail that had been touched by the Outsider and shot through the chest, she'd still be the Shadow.

"**Use this newfound power, my gift to you both**," the Outsider continued, bowing to them at the waist as the darkness surrounded him, fading from existence. Only a second later, a chilled hand touched Robyn's back as lips ghosted over the shell of her ear. "**Come find me**,"

Corvo spun around to face her, eyes harsh as he looked for the voice that had surprised him, but Robyn know the Outsider was already gone by the time Corvo was facing her.

"Robyn?"

She nodded. "I'm alright,"

His face didn't clear any but he seemed to accept what she'd said with a nod as he turned to look around. She could tell he was trying to make some sense of what was happening to the two of them, examine and explain. But Robyn knew better than that, turning to look down at the Mark on her hand.

It was glowing, even darkly, it glowed with an energy that made her feel jittery. It was as if the Mark was buzzing with the need to be used now, waiting for her to… do something. But she didn't know what needed to be done, all she knew was that she had magic and that she was supposed to be finding the Outsider. But how was she supposed to do that when there was nowhere else to go. The only way to go was back towards the building they had previously been in. Otherwise, there was a fifty yard gap between them and the next platform which…

"Oh no,"

Robyn was staring at the floating platform nearest to them, a broken mound of cobblestone that had once been the gazebo that the Empress had loved to frequent… the same place she'd been assassinated. And what was worse, was that Robyn could see a bloodied body strewn out in the center of the gazebo. It stole the air from her lungs as she started at the feminine figure lying in its own blood.

She felt Corvo come to stand beside her, ever the silent figure as he looked across the distance to the gazebo. She felt him stiffen beside her, painful energy wafting off of him as he stared at the body of the woman he had no doubt loved.

"Corvo, I-"

"We need to get out of here," he interrupted, looking down at the mark on his hand. "Do you know how to use these marks?"

Robyn frowned up at him but decided to let him ignore the horrible memory literally in front of them. If that was what Corvo needed, that's what she'd give him. After all, he needed so little that if felt like a sin not to allow him a simple change in conversation just this once.

Robyn shook her head. "No. I know the witches use the Outsider's power… and I know for sure that Daud has one. That's how the assassins get around Dunwall but…" Robyn shrugged, glancing across the distance while trying to ignore the body of the Empress. "I was never a part of his gang of assassins and I stayed as far away from Brigmore manor as I could possibly get,"

Corvo frowned but didn't say any more.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"No,"

Robyn rolled her eyes at him. Well, at least he was straight forward about his answers. "Well… when I was the Shadow I saw assassins pop in and out of existence, just like the Tail I had all those years ago who attacked the Empress. Maybe we can replicate that?"

When Corvo didn't say anything, she took it as approvals.

She looked between the Mark and the closest point on the gazebo. Squeezing her hands, she imagined herself standing there, her feet flat on the stone, secure and unwavering. She felt the buzz in her hand turn into a steady burn that made her gasp, dropping the fist she'd made with a hiss of pain.

"Damn it,"

"Robyn!"

Corvo's voice shouldn't have sounded so far away, but as she brought her eyes up from her hand, she suddenly understood why. She was standing in the gazebo, the flat stone firm beneath her booted feet, the Empress's body not five feet away. It brought a gasp up Robyn's throat as she spun around to see the sudden distance between her and Corvo.

She tried it again, imagining the raised cobblestone beneath her feet, Corvo's warmth at her shoulder as she closed her hand into a tight fist against the tense burning. She suddenly came to the realization that the burning was in fact magic, magic that pulled from her core in a way she'd never felt before. It made her smile as she released her fist, appearing at Corvo's side again.

"That was…" Robyn trailed off, staring down at her hand. "That was amazing,"

She met Corvo's eyes with a bit of awe at the power of the Mark. If only she'd had this power when she'd been a street rat in Dunwall, moving through the shadows like she belonged. With the power to… blink in and out of existence… she could have avoided the eyes of many, climbed to places that would have otherwise possibly broken her limbs, and even avoided killing all together. It would have made her younger years so much easier.

But Corvo was patiently waiting for her to come back to herself and tell him how to use the Mark. So Robyn took a breath and did just that, pushing her excitement and awe back into her mind where she could think up maniacal uses for it at a more appropriate time.

"Sorry,"

It didn't take long for Corvo to pick up the trick of Blinking. With only one explanation, a suggestion or two, and a moment of concentration, he was suddenly standing within the gazebo. Robyn followed after him, warily watching him as his eyes lingered on the Empress and the note beside her body. The note was a taunt, one that she knew hit home with Corvo more than it would have anyone else who would have read it.

_**YOU CANNOT SAVE HER.**_

"Corvo-"

Again, he interrupted her, walking past the Empress's body. "How are we supposed to trust this… Outsider?" he asked her without looking back. "The stories I heard of the Outsider as a child were horrors that frightened us into clinging to our mother's skirts,"

"True. But those were _cautionary_ tales," Robyn tried, stepping up beside him. "As horrifying as some of them could be, they were warnings. The Outsider never causes harm Himself, He just comes into stories to tip the balance rather than purposely destroy lives,"

"And how do you know that?"

"My mother," Robyn told him easily, not bothering to hide her smile. "She told me stories of the Outsider. He's a force of nature, not a man that wants to rule the world or watch it burn. He's just there to observe what people will do with the power given to them,"

"People like us?"

"I suppose. I mean, He _did_ say we'll play a pivotal role in the days to come," She held up her marked hand between them. "We're going to find Emily and bring those who murdered the Empress to justice… maybe this is the push we need to accomplish that,"

Corvo's expression didn't change as he walked up to the edge of the gazebo to Blink away to the next platform, leaving her to follow.

As they continued to blink from platform to platform, blindly moving towards some unclear direction, Robyn knew they were headed in the right direction. She wasn't sure how she knew that this was the right way to go but she didn't down that a lot of unnatural things happened here, things that she had no hope of explaining.

Eventually they came upon another scene, one that starred two weasely looking men and Emily herself. The scene was frozen in place, leaving Emily's scared figure caught between running away and tethered to one of the men, a letter flying from her hand. Robyn Blinked so fast that she didn't bother worrying about the dry burn in her hand as she appeared next to the girl. She wanted nothing more than to have a sword in her hand to dry into the chests of these men, but she doubted that even a death here would mean a full death in the real world… or maybe it was the other way around?

Robyn picked up the note as Corvo appeared beside her, stepping up to look into the faces of the men that held Emily. She herself didn't recognize either of them so turned to the note, something that she hoped would help her find Emily.

_Corvo,_

_I am very sad. They say that you and Robyn are dead like Mother, but I'm going to put this note in a bottle and throw it into the river because I do not believe them. Maybe Robyn can become the Shadow again and steal me away from here like in her stories when she took things from people. Living here is very strange. I do not like it, so please come for me if you can._

"I recognize these men," Corvo suddenly grumbled, causing Robyn to look up at him. "We are working for their brother, Treavor Pendelton,"

"Pendelton?" Robyn repeated, testing the name on her tongue. "When I was young, I remember hearing about the twins that used to set rats on their little brother for fun," Robyn frowned at the two identical looking men standing here before her, one with their hand wrapped around Emily's wrist. It made her stomach turn at the thought of her being in their grimy hands. "And we're working for their youngest brother?"

Corvo didn't look back at her, just frowned as his eyes looked over Emily, frozen as she was.

With a sigh, Robyn held out the letter, allowing him to take it from her. As he read over it, multiple times, his face remained the neutral mask she'd come to know over the years as his eyes flashed across the worn paper. It was only the tenseness of his hands and the way he slipped it into his jacket that told her how much this all distressed him. She knew him better than anyone ever had since he'd come from Serkonos all those years ago, no matter what you wanted to say about the Empress. Robyn knew that Corvo was hurting, no matter how much he wished to hide it from her and himself.

So Robyn turned her eyes to their surroundings, examining the small corner that seemed familiar to her. The large plant and the bench that pressed into the wall, the extravagant decorations that lined the edge of the platform… and the painting on the wall. If only she hadn't visited every apartment, mansion, and establishment in Dunwall so many times that they mixed together in four year old memories.

"Do you recognize this place?"

Robyn grimaced. "Yes, which is the problem. I recognize it but I couldn't tell you where this is,"

She didn't bother looking over at Corvo as she stepped up to the edge of the wooden floor and Blinked to the platform. Her hand stung again, drawing her eyes to the floating vile that nearly caught her in the face. It was a medical vial that she recognized from her time as the Shadow, drinking remedies and elixirs to keep the plague at bay. This one glowed the same blue-ish purple tint that the Void seemed to, a tell that made this particular vial one of Piero's Remedies. The sight of it making her hand cool while buzzing with longing.

"Piero's Remedy,"

Robyn glanced over at Corvo and nodded. "I think these have something to do with our powers… maybe replenishes energies? I read an article by Piero claimed such things," Corvo didn't say anything to her, just plucked the vial out of the air to look it over. "Do you think he knows?"

"Possibly, but he's never been accused of black magic. He's a man of science, if a bit unsettling,"

Robyn took the vial from him and flipped the top open. Giving the liquid inside a tentative look, she took a sip, feeling a now familiar chill run through her that calmed the buzzing sting in her hand.

"It works,"

Corvo frowned as he took the vial from her, finishing it off with a tilt of his head.

The two continued Blinking through the floating, broken world with little more conversation no matter what they passed. Even passing the Royal Spymaster himself sparked little conversation as they observed the map he was destroying or the charts on his invisible wall. The continued wordlessly past a pair of Tall boys that were in the midst of killing two sick civilians, no matter how sick it made Robyn feel to see it.

"How do you seem to know so much about this place?" Corvo suddenly asked, ducking under the foot of a Tall boy to follow after her. "Your mother? And how did she know?"

Robyn shrugged. "It was all just stories to her. My uncles were sailors that traveled around, hearing these stories and traveling with people who told them. My mother used to get books that told of fantasies and miracles along with horrors when there was a dark figure involved,"

Robyn blinked to the next platform which had a fancy chest sitting on it. With quick hands, she has the lock open and removed two Remedies.

"I remember nights when my mother would lay in bed with me, telling me about the Outsider and a woman who once loved him so much that it drove her mad," Robyn smiled, looking back over her shoulder as Corvo Blinked beside her. "She was a lost girl who was loved by all who looked upon her until one night when she heard the singing of bone and fell in love with the blackest eyes that saw who she truly was. He cared not for beautiful but for the voices of souls who twisted the world's fate like a cord. She fell for him and branded herself with his Mark, calling to him every night in the hopes of being called to his side,"

"And?"

"Her love grew as her mind decayed. She was no longer the beauty that drove men to their knees nor the siren that could call their names. She was no longer interesting, and so she was forgotten, left with nothing but His mark and the taint of madness,"

"The Outsider left her?"

Robyn nodded. "He did not need her nor want her anymore. So he moved on," Again, she Blinked to the next platform, kicking a stone with her boot that floated up through the air. "My mother told me stories of those who dabble in the black arts, how they used this place to draw power to weave the world how they saw fit. She told me of how people would fall asleep and be lost here, unaware that mere seconds here could mean their bodies had long since rotted in the real world. _Time is meaningless here. Neither seconds, nor centuries. And someday it will devour all the lights in the sky_," Robyn recited, an echo of her mother's story telling voice in her own as the words sang in the Void. "Each story was a lesson to keep away from the Outsider and his Mark… or maybe a lesson to not expect too much of whatever He chooses to bestow on us,"

"A warning,"

Robyn smiled over at Corvo. "A good thing we are nothing if not wary,"

They continued until they came to another, larger and connected, platform that darkened the closer they got. Robyn knew He was there even before her feet touched the stone and the cold smell of the sea filled her nose. She looked up and He was suddenly there.

"**In the days that follow, your trials will be great**," He told them as Corvo appeared beside her, his black looking at both of them and neither of them. "**Seek the ancient runes bearing my Mark in the lonely places of your world and at shrines raised in my name. These runes will grant you powers beyond those of other men. To help you find these runes I give you my sight**,"

A sting behind Robyn's eyes left her gasping as her sight faded into blackness. Fear froze Robyn's heart and left her gasping for breaths of air, blinking rapidly to try to clear her vision again. What had He done to her? Why couldn't she see anything?

"_Robyn_,"

Corvo's harsh voice stopped her fear for a moment, long enough for her to be able to realize that she wasn't truly blind. As she took a second to breathe she realized that she could see shapes around her, the shape of the stones and broken buildings materializing before her. And what was more, she could almost see the darkness of something shining in the distance, a soft song drawing her towards whatever it was in the distance.

"Robyn?"

"I can see something…" She didn't know how to describe it. She was seeing something shining like a star in the distance? Something she could hear singing to her? She doubted Corvo would understand it, much less not think she was going insane. "I don't…"

"**With this Dark Vision, you will be guided toward my runes, no matter how they may be hidden, and you will be able to see what was not supposed to be seen with simple eyes**," the Outsider explained to them, appearing as a flowing purple figure that hovered above them to Robyn. "**Follow the little Robyn, guide her through the Void and find another rune**,"

He faded from Robyn's sight, leaving her in a world of blackened shapes and a lightless star.

"Corvo?"

"I'm here,"

"It's hard to see," she told him, hating the shivering fear in her voice. "He wasn't kidding when He said you'd need to guide me around,"

Corvo's hand slipped around her waist as they walked up steps that Robyn was steadily getting better at picking out through the darkness of her vision. She wondered curiously whether this… Dark Vision would leave her so crippled when she was outside of the Void. After all, this vision seemed to illuminate not only these runes that the Outsider spoke of, but delicate intricacies in the world around her that she would have never noticed before. The sneaking Shadow side of her could see a myriad of uses for sneaking over crooked ground and sneaking into places otherwise unseen. It would be interesting to test outside the Void.

"Which way, Robyn?"

"Left," she told him, her body reacting to the proximity of the rune. "It's somewhere below us. Either we'll have to climb down or Blink,"

Corvo remained silent as he led her the rest of the way to the rune, stopping when they came to the sudden drop to the next few platforms that led to the last one. Robyn could barely make it out beyond the strange shape it had to it and the black star that shone from it. But she didn't take too long to wonder what it looked like before this Dark Vision had been forced on her, she was now worrying about how she was going to get down to it.

"Hold on,"

"What?" Robyn gasped, feeling his arm tighten around her waist. "Corvo, we don't know-"

Light blinded her as the world shifted beneath her feet, leaving only Corvo as the only stable thing in her reach. He Blinked again and she was suddenly sped through the world again, appearing several platforms below and feeling disoriented as soon as they finally settled. She held onto his shoulder for good measure, trying to keep the annoyance at him out of her face and failing.

He even had the gall to chuckle at her.

"Shut up, Corvo,"

He didn't even dignify her annoyance with a response.

"That would be the rune, by the way,"

He slowly let go of her waist before stepping the rest of the way towards the black star that now felt like it was blinding Robyn. But after a few harsh blinks she realized that the humming in her head was dulling as vibrant purples replaced the blackened shapes. After a long moment, colors and shapes returned to her sight, leaving her to stand before a shine to the Outsider full of vibrant purple fabrics that flew up into the air like bright brushstrokes on a canvas.

Robyn turned back to Corvo to find him looking at her. "Yes?"

"Your eyes were completely black before,"

Robyn smiled. "Seems the Dark Vision has run its course," She let out a sigh of relief as she stepped up beside him, looking down at the hovering rune of bone before the two of them. It wasn't like anything she'd seen before, which was saying something given her time as the Shadow in Dunwall. Or maybe they just hadn't seemed so important to her before? Only being a chunk of bone before today.

Corvo reached out and picked it up, studying it as his hand glowed as if reacting to the bone.

"**How you use what I have given you-**"

Corvo and Robyn looked up to find the Outsider suddenly there, looking down on them with what might have been perceived as little interest. But Robyn, with a memory full of stories about this figure, knew better than to believe that completely.

"-**falls upon you, as it has to the others before you. Each rune will sing a story to you, a story of power that will be yours to use. Whether it sings of a flurry of rats which you murder a man with or distract a host of guards with, each rune will gift you with new songs and powers**,"

Robyn glanced down at the rune in Corvo's hand, curious about what "song" it held to teach them… was it the power to call upon rats? Or give Corvo the same vision she had?

So she reached out and took it from Corvo, feeling a freezing sting in her hand as she saw people she didn't know. She could see a hunched man cradling the rune in his hands as he looked out upon a city she'd never seen before. He looked out on a city of black and white, seeing spots of sickly yellow that scuttled at his feet. Rats. And then farther away, she could see shining yellow figures that stood out as men and women of the city.

"**And now I return you to your world**," the Outsider told them, his black eyes capturing Robyn's attention, drowning everything around her out. "**But know that I will be watching with great interest**,"

The cold and darkness surrounded Robyn like a blanket left out in the wind. The smell of incense became overwhelming as her mind drifted through the dark and away from the Void.

_**Goodnight, little bird. **_

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**Author's Note:**** There was no way that I was going to have Corvo carrying around a heart in the middle of Dunwall, let alone the heart of his lost Empress that whispers to him. Instead, FantasyMind231 inspired me with the idea to do something a little different. (Sorry I didn't use your idea exactly though.) So, I've gifted Robyn the same Dark Vision that Daud has in _The Knife of Dunwall_ and _Brigmore Witches_. I hope you guys don't mind. **

**Review about what you think?**


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